3DE    372 


wi. 


I     '0     . 


CHRISTIAN 


BELIEVING    AND    LIVING 


,/?  T,ir  < 

SERMONS 


BY 


F.   D.  HUNTINGTON,   D.  D., 

PREACHER   TO   THE   UNIA'ERSITY,    A^D   PLUMMER    PROFESSOR  OF 
CHRISTIAN  MORALS   IN  HARVARD   COLLEGE. 


BOSTON: 
CROSBY,    NICHOLS,    AND    COMPANY, 

117  WASHINGTON   STREET. 
1860. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1859,  by 

CllOSBY,     NICHOLS,     &     CO., 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


University  Press,  Cambridge  : 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co. 


CONTENTS. 


SERMON    I. 

PAGE 
THE    CHRISTIAN    CALLING  1 


SERMON    II. 

THE   ANSWER   OF    FAITH 16 

SERMON     III. 

THE   FAITH-FACULTY 36 

SERMON    IV. 

THREE   DISPENSATIONS    IN   HISTORY    AND    IN   THE    SOUL   .  .  .63 

SERMON     V. 

THE   FEELING   AND    CRY   OF    SIN 83 

SERMON    VI. 

THE   ECONOMY   OF   RENEWAL 98 

SERMON     VII. 

NAMES  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CHANGE   .     .     .     .114 


CONTENTS. 


SERMON    VIII. 

PERMANENT     REALITIES     OF    RELIGION,    AND    TIMES   OF   SPECIAL 

RELIGIOUS    INTEREST       ........       129 

SERMON     IX. 

PEACE   BY   POWER         ..........      167 


SERMON     X. 

THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  VOICE 187 

SERMON     XI. 

CHRISTIAN   LONELINESS •  •      202 

SERMON    XII. 

SAINTHOOD    IN    CAESAR'S    HOUSEHOLD 217 

SERMON    XIII. 

DIVINE   REWARDS 232 

SERMON    XIV. 

THE   SECRET   OF   THE   NEW   NAME 254 

SERMON     XV. 
CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION  .        .        .274 

SERMON     XVI. 

CHRISTIAN   RESTING   AND   WAITING 291 

SERMON     XVII. 

THE   ADVENT  •  3°8 


CONTENTS.  V 

SERMON      XVIII. 

CHRIST    OUR   PROPHET,    PRIEST,   AND   KING      .  .          \  .  .321 

SERMON     XIX. 

THE   CROSS   A   BURDEN   OR   A   GLORY 338 

SERMON     XX. 

LIFE,  SALVATION,  AND  COMFORT  FOR  MAN  IN  THE  DIVINE  TRINITY      355 

SERMON     XXI. 

THE   PROMISE   AND   ASSURANCE    OF   SANCTIFICATION         .  .  .      419 

SERMON     XXII. 

THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE 436 

SERMON     XXIII. 

CHRISTIAN   CITIZENSHIP   AND   HONEST    LEGISLATION        .  .  .      451 

SERMON     XXIV. 

LIFE   THE   TEST   OF   LEARNING 486 

SERMON     XXV. 

THE    HOUSE   OF   PRAYER     .  ,      502 


NOTE    TO   SERMON   XX.  .  .  .  .524 


SERMON    I. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    CALLING. 

YE   SEE   YOUR   CALLING.  —  1  Cor.  i.  26. 

THE  word  "  calling "  applied  to  a  human  life  in  the 
Christian  sense,  and  by  a  Christian  authority  like  Paul, 
is  a  condensed  confession  of  faith.  It  means  the  great 
primary  truth  of  religion,  viz.  that  our  erring  life  is  gov 
erned  by  a  will  above  it,  and  is  capable  of  receiving  in 
fluences  of  attraction  from  the  Spirit  of  God.  Take  up 
that  single  truth,  trace  it  out  to  its  legitimate  results, 
admit  all  its  practical  obligations,  let  in  upon  your  own 
mind  both  the  solemn  sense  of  duty  and  the  clear  illu 
mination  for  sorrow  that  it  brings  with  it,  accept  its 
necessary  incidents  of  penitence,  renewal,  redemption, 
and  you  find  that,  including  its  connections  and  con 
sequences,  it  is  a  majestic  compendium  of  religious 
doctrine. 

There  is  another  and  at  present  a  more  secular  ap 
plication  of  the  same  term.  A  man's  common  employ 
ment  —  the  means  of  his  livelihood  —  is  spoken  of  as 
his  "  calling,"  or  his  vocation.  But  this  usage  discovers 
the  same  origin ;  for  it  must  have  sprung  up  in  days  of 
a  livelier  faith,  when  it  was  verily  believed  that  each 
man's  business  in  the  world  was  a  sacred  appointment, 
i 


2  THE   CHRISTIAN   CALLING. 

and  that  he  himself,  while  about  his  ordinary  work,  was 
on  a  divine  errand.  A  living  faith  not  only  justifies 
that  view,  but  requires  it.  For  it  supposes  that  in  the 
soul  which  has  confessed  its  calling,  where  Christ  is 
"  formed  within,"  there  is  a  power  of  holy  consecration 
supreme  over  all  the  choices  and  pursuits  of  the  mind. 
We  are  thus  carried  up  to  a  conception  of  Christian 
discipleship  that  has  been  too  far  lost  out  of  the  modern 
habits  of  living,  and  even  out  of  the  belief  and  worship 
of  the  Church.  We  have  glimpses  of  a  holy  manhood 
and  womanhood  beyond  the  mark  of  our  secularized, 
diluted,  or  perhaps  formalized  and  ossified  Christianity. 
We  catch  a  breath  of  the  fragrant  piety  which  once 
hallowed  the  earth  and  sweetened  the  air.  We  feel 
that  miraculous  touch  which  has  always  brought  heal 
ing  and  vigor  to  the  languid  pulse  and  feeble  muscles. 
We  behold,  with  sight  too  dim,  but  in  a  splendor  that 
cannot  be  wholly  veiled,  "  the  prize  of  the  high  calling 
of  God  in  Christ  Jesus." 

The  expression  stirs  some  feeling  of  mystery.  More 
is  suggested  than  the  understanding  clearly  grasps.  It 
is  so,  in  a  degree,  with  every  elevated,  prophetic  utter 
ance  of  spiritual  truth.  For  that  always  borders  upon 
the  unknown,  shades  off  into  the  infinite,  and  leaves 
us  to  discern  spiritually  what  we  cannot  reduce  to  the 
terms  of  knowledge.  Religion  itself,  as  the  invisible 
bond  that  holds  us  consciously,  confidingly,  to  the  Eter 
nal  One,  is  mysterious.  Yet  a  life  without  this  sense  of 
a  Hand  guiding  it,  a  Spirit  moving  it,  a  God  in  Christ 
calling  to  it,  is  really  far  more  perplexing  and  unac 
countable  than  with  that  key  to  its  changes.  For  then, 
severed  from  a  Father,  it  is  not  only  a  mystery,  but 
a  contradiction;  not  only  a  riddle  to  the  reason,  but, 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CALLING.  3 

sooner  or  later,  with  all  its  failures  and  miseries,  a  pain 
ful  puzzle  to  the  heart,  or  even  an  agonizing  mockery  to 
our  sense  of  right,  —  an  enigma  that  neither  genius,  nor 
stoicism,  nor  sensuality,  nor  suicide  can  solve.  Persons 
of  sensitive  natures  have  to  shut  their  eyes  and  refuse 
to  think  of  it.  Hardier  observers  speculatively  turn  it 
over,  like  some  anomalous  specimen  in  science,  in  the 
fingers  of  their  philosophy,  with  no  clew  to  its  secret. 

But  there  is  something  here,  too,  that  is  plain  enough 
to  common  sense,  and,  to  earnest  moods  at  least,  very 
welcome.  How  many  weeks  will  any  of  us  be  able  to 
live  without  coming  to  some  spot  where  it  will  be  felt 
as  a  rational  comfort  to  believe  that  all  our  way,  step 
by  step,  trial  by  trial,  surprise,  success,  failure,  loss, 
removal,  was  ordered  for  us  by  Him  who  sees  the  end 
from  the  beginning?  If  there  is  a  "  calling,"  there  is 
One  who  calls,  and  who  when  calling  has  a  right  to  be 
heard.  It  follows  that  there  is  one  object  in  existence 
so  pre-eminent,  that  to  accomplish  that  is  to  fulfil  the 
great  purpose  of  our  being,  and  to  fail  of  that  is  to  miss 
the  chief  end.  These  are  very  intelligible  ideas,  easily 
seized  by  every  mind,  and  indeed  seeming  to  be  natu 
rally  suited  to  serious  and  reverential  habits  of  thought, 
looking  but  a  little  way  below  the  surface.  It  is  only 
triflers,  too  frivolous  to  think,  who  conceive  of  their  life 
as  without  a  plan,  and  have  never  heard  the  call  of  the 
Master,  "  Go,  work  to-day  in  my  vineyard." 

So  true  is  this,  that  it  has  been  observed  of  the 
most  efficient  and  commanding  men  in  the  history  of 
the  world,  that  they  were  apt  to  represent  themselves 
as  led  on  by  some  Power  beyond  themselves,  —  insti 
gated,  possessed,  or  inspired  by  a  strange  force  above 
their  control,  —  a  Demon,  a  Genius,  a  Destiny,  or  a 


4  THE  CHRISTIAN  CALLING. 

Deity.  And  certainly  the  successful  establishing  of  this 
impression  respecting  any  leader,  legislator,  or  reformer, 
has  always  proved  a  powerful  element  of  popular  fasci 
nation.  To  be  held  the  princely  child  of  an  unseen 
guardianship,  an  elect  avenger  of  the  gods,  or  an  in 
spired  instrument  of  Fate,  has  always  clothed  a  hero  in 
extraordinary  superiority.  And  whether  you  take  it  as 
the  honest  conviction  of  the  claimant  to  such  a  mission, 
or  as  the  superstition  of  his  followers,  this  seems  to  be 
an  indirect  natural  testimony  that  the  strongest  achieve 
ments  of  man  bear  in  their  very  bosom  an  involuntary 
witness  that  there  is  more  than  man  behind  them. 

But  the  Apostle  refers  to  something  higher  and  holier 
than  any  dreamy  sentiment  like  this.  Standing  on  the 
verities  of  the  Gospel,  speaking,  observe,  to  those  that 
have  heard  it  and  nominally  assented  to  it,  he  summons 
them  to  a  more  solemn  and  searching  sense  of  what 
it  requires  of  them :  "  Ye  see  your  calling,  brethren." 
The  truth  is  clear ;  you  see  it.  It  is  not  of  men,  but 
of  God,  who  calls.  Christ  has  lived,  and  he  asks  living 
followers.  He  has  died,  a  sacrifice,  and  he  asks  the 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  the  death  of  evil,  in  you.  He  has 
risen,  living  evermore ;  and  whatsoever  gift  of  his  love 
ye  shall  ask,  believing,  ye  shall  receive.  These  are  your 
guaranties,  your  commission,  your  grounds  of  action. 
This  is  your  calling.  It  is  not,  then,  our  life  in  gen 
eral,  every  kind  of  life,  the  life  of  mere  accidental  im 
pulse  or  of  moral  insensibility,  the  life  of  self-interest, 
the  life  of  fashion-following  or  fame-seeking,  —  it  is  not' 
an  irreligious  life  at  all,  in  any  of  its  unsightly  and 
empty  forms,  that  is  "  your  calling."  It  is  the  life  of 
a  disciple  of  Christ,  penetrated  in  every  part  by  his 
spirit,  warmed  by  his  zeal,  baptized  into  his  pure  blood, 


THE   CHI  VLLING. 

sanctified    l.y   his   indwelling  ;e,  purged  of 

works  and  :i  s'Tvih-  ohrdi«'ii'  •  ,  his  quickening 
"  hid  "  with  him,  and  so  "  11  nifest "  and  <( 

fied"  with  him. 

It  is  remarkable  how  pertemngly  the  New 
ni'-nt  (Tm«_rs  to  thi<  par  ption  of  the 

tian  relation,  srttiiiLr  it  ini-wii:  i  all  possible  C< 
linns  of  phrasr,  and  ].iittin-j  in  contact  witli 
(•!•  incut  of  tli«'  Cliri-iian  v  <  if  there  T 

vitality  in  it  that  nni^t  ii"t  means  be  n 

Disciples  are  >aid  to  1 the  <>f  Jesus,"  " 

out  of  darknrx   im,,  mar\(  ;  ..-ht,"  "called 

liluTty,"  'M-allrd   to   p.  d  to  eternal 

u  called  "  first,  to  be  aft<T  ustificd  and 

lifd,"1  "eallol  to  inh«-rit  a  l'l«;ang,"  "called  i 
body"  and  u  one  hope,"  uc  >  God's  grac 

"  holiness,"  to  k*  his  kingdom  nd  glory,"  wil 
holy  calling,"  ua  h«'av» -nly  ca  The  Apostl 

died"  from  one  pla«'.\  \v<>ik.  u  ring,  joy,  to 
er,  in  the  journeying  and  progns  of  their  apost 
To  u  walk  worthy  of  tin-  TO  is  made  the 

ness  of  a  careful  conscience  nake  our  "< 

and  elr«  tinii  sure,"  is  the  gr;  »ry  of  our  w 

The  promise  that  subdues  all  uiii  y  as  to  the  re 
in  the  words,  "Faithful  is  h  alleth  you." 

Let  us  notice,  in  order,  the  pvrninent  teachi 
this  laiiLiu;! 

I.   In  the  first  place,  it  is  r  in  it,  as  i 

the  whole  drift  of  the  primitive  terming  of  the  Aj 
that  the  business  of  a  Christian  1     •    -imething 
and  distinctive,  —  a  "  calling"  by  ;  elf.     That  is 
nature  and  spirit,  it  is  somcthii       >   l>e  disting 
from  all  other  occupations,  all  schmes  of  thougl 


6  THE  CHRISTIAN  CALLING. 

terns  of  philosophy,  enterprises  of  the  will,  or  plans  of 
education.  It  is  such  that  no  one  of  these  things  can 
be  mistaken  for  it,  nor  substituted  in  place  of  it.  A 
Christian  character  springs  from  its  own  root,  grows  by 
its  own  laws,  and  bears  its  own  peculiar  fruit.  It  finds 
a  distinct  provision  in  every  human  soul  for  developing 
it,  —  a  religious  capacity,  an  organ  of  faith,  a  spiritual 
want,  reaching  dimly  after  God,  and  never  meant  to  be 
satisfied  but  in  the  gift  of  his  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  there 
fore  to  be  gone  about  as  an  attainment,  grand  but  sim 
ple,  practicable  for  all  men,  the  noblest  of  all  objects. 
It  has  its  own  conditions,  of  effort,  preparation,  faithful 
use  of  appointed  means.  Seek,  and  ye  shall  find ;  ask, 
and  ye  shall  receive.  The  inward  eye  must  be  turned 
toward  the  Revelation  of  God.  There  must  be  defi 
nite  action,  a  fixing  of  attention,  a  concentration  of  the 
mind,  a  full  purpose  of  the  will.  This  must  have  a 
beginning,  which  the  New  Testament  everywhere  speaks 
of  as  being  born  into  a  new  life.  There  must  be  a  stir 
ring  and  moving  of  the  soul  awakened  from  death  to 
ward  its  Deliverer,  with  complete  faith  in  him,  which 
Christ  constantly  calls  coming  to  him.  Then  there  must 
be  a  growing  into  greater  strength  and  goodness,  with 
out  end.  Here,  therefore,  is  a  new  principle  of  conduct. 
It  is  a  divine  calling.  Paul  speaks  as  if  no  pursuit  were 
to  be  thought  of  in  comparison  with  it.  It  is  the  errand 
on  which  we  are  all  sent  into  the  world,  —  to  gain  the 
character,  to  live  the  life,  that  will  be  nearest  to  God 
here,  and  will  be  immortal  by  its  secret  fellowship  with 
Him  who  is  its  Resurrection,  —  Life  of  life. 

II.  Secondly,  this  idea  of  a  "  calling"  individualizes 
not  only  the  Christian  obligation,  but  the  Christian  per 
son.  Paul  had  no  conception  of  a  social  Christianity 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CALLING.  7 

apart  from  the  personal  righteousness  of  the  men  that 
make  up  society.  That  is  one  of  the  plausible  fictions 
of  people  who  find  speculative  abstractions  more  to  their 
taste  than  the  self-denying  drudgeries  of  daily  duty,  and 
a  Christianity  on  paper  a  cheap  substitute  for  Chris 
tianity  in  the  heart.  Ye  see  the  calling,  Paul  says,  — 
and  it  is  your  calling.  This  is  personal  language.  It 
is  addressed  to  individual  men  and  women.  It  is  the 
uniform  and  thorough  dealing  of  the  Christian  doctrine. 
That  truth  knows  nothing  of  public  virtue  except  as  it 
is  found  in  the  breasts  and  the  conduct  of  private  per 
sons,  who  take  their  virtue  with  them,  and  keep  it  with 
them,  when  they  enter  into  public  relations.  It  reaches 
society  and  institutions  only  through  the  souls  that  are 
open  to  its  persuasion  and  loyal  to  its  control.  It  is 
quite  vain  for  us  to  congratulate  each  other  on  a  state 
of  general  integrity  and  order,  if  we  tolerate  depravity 
in  ourselves,  or  excuse  it  in  the  usages  of  the  class  to 
which  we  happen  to  belong.  If  we  have  a  community 
here  of  a  thousand  people,  in  which  we  want  to  see  the 
Christian  graces  flourishing,  our  only  way  is  to  go  to 
work  and  turn  one  and  another  of  the  thousand  into  a 
Christian  person,  each  beginning  with  himself.  Every 
body  feels  the  advantage  of  a  general  good  name ;  the 
least  deserving  take  a  pride  in  it  when  it  is  secured ;  — 
one  of  those  indirect  and  involuntary  tributes  to  the 
power  and  truth  of  religion  which  are  more  unanswer 
able  than  volumes  of  formal  arguments.  But  are  we 
willing  to  pay  the  price,  —  the  contribution  of  our  own 
personal  uprightness  and  vigilance  ?  Or  are  we  mean 
enough  to  wish  to  take  a  share  of  the  credit,  while  prac 
tising  the  very  sins  that  this  fair  repute  is  wanted  to 
conceal  ?  The  worst  enemies  our  faith  has  to  suffer 


8  THE   CHBISTIAN   CALLING. 

from  are  those  that  always  take  complacency  in  its  ben 
efits  as  a  civil  economy,  but  always  make  it  bend  to 
their  own  inclination  in  the  indulgences  of  passion  and 
the  obliquities  of  self-interest.  Its  open  deniers  —  those 
who  call  themselves  infidels  —  have  a  small  and  incred 
ulous  audience.  There  is  not  one  of  the  creeds  —  the 
most  rigid  —  but  has  more  hearty  and  contented  adhe 
rents  than  the  no-creed  of  blank  negation.  And  com 
monly,  the  more  explicit  impiety  or  irreverence  becomes, 
the  less  its  chance  of  popularity.  The  mortal  wound  is 
given  by  those  who  .take  up  Christianity  as  a  social  pol 
icy,  a  name  to  conjure  with,  a  commercial  convenience, 
trying  to  make  that  pass  for  the  holy  reality  of  Christ. 
The  only  people  that  can  take  any  benefit  from  this  in 
sincerity  are  those  that  are  too  undiscriminating  to  mark 
the  difference  between  words  and  things.  And  even  for 
these,  the  difference  is  constantly  forcing  itself  to  light ; 
the  mask  is  constantly  liable  to  drop,  through  the  un 
guarded  inconsistencies  and  the  providential  uncover- 
ings  of  hollow  proprieties.  How  weary  and  indignant 
God  must  be  at  hearing  these  Pharisaic  praises  of  a 
Christian  religion,  a  Christian  legislation,  a  Christian 
literature,  a  Christian  country,  from  speakers  and  writ 
ers  who  allow  Christianity  to  conquer  no  one  of  their 
propensities  to  pleasure  or  to  pride  !  Have  you  never 
known  a  community  tacitly,  not  avowedly,  —  there  is 
too  much  instinctive  shame  left  for  that,  —  but  actually, 
and  by  a  common  understanding,  established  on  the 
rule  to  recognize  the  practical  control  of  Christianity 
up  to  a  certain  point,  —  and  beyond  that  point,  a  mu 
tual,  silent  conspiracy  to  let  questionable  matters  alone  ? 
How  would  that  bear  the  preaching  of  Paul,  or  of  Paul's 
Master  ?  The  truth  is,  the  fashions  and  assemblages  of 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CALLING.  9 

society,  instead  of  being  an  exposure  and  a  judgment 
to  irreligious  hearts,  are  often  made  their  protection. 
We  speak  of  bad  men  hiding  in  solitude.  Far  more 
of  them  hide  in  company.  Personal  obligation,  with  its 
strict  and  solemn  answers  of  each  penitent  and  awak 
ened  soul  to  the  call  of  its  Lord,  is  sunk,  or  frittered 
away,  in  the  cowardly  compliances  of  a  vulgar  prosper 
ity.  The  original  Gospel  breaks  in  upon  this  giddiness. 
It  says,  Unto  you  I  call,  soul  by  soul.  The  vocation 
is  an  individual  matter.  Ye  see  it,  each  for  himself. 
Hast  thou  faith,  have  it  to  thyself.  There  is  no  im 
personal  character,  no  pardon  by  proxy,  no  collective 
salvation.  The  work  is  for  each.  "  Repent,"  is*  for 
each.  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God,"  is  for  each. 
"  Take  up  the  cross  and  come  after  me,"  is  for  each. 
"  Ye  see  your  calling." 

Thus  we  have  found  that  this  Apostolic  view  of  prac 
tical  Christianity  as  a  "  calling  "  individualizes,  first,  the 
Christian  principle,  as  having  a  place  distinct  from  all 
other  principles,  and,  secondly,  individualizes  the  Chris 
tian  life,  as  having  all  its  awful  obligations,  its  joys 
and  sanctions,  centred  upon  each  personal  conscience 
and  heart. 

III.  Be  reminded,  further,  that,  notwithstanding  all 
this,  Christ's  truth  is  a  matter,  not  of  partial,  but  of 
universal  application.  The  Christian  spirit,  the  Chris 
tian  revelation,  the  Christian  privilege  and  promises, 
are  not  meant  for  a  class  of  men  culled  out  arbitrarily 
here  and  there ;  not  for  a  few  persons  of  special  con 
stitutional  proclivities  that  way,  nor  for  a  few  others 
whose  circumstances  and  situation  in  the  world  happen 
to  predispose  them  for  a  spiritual  plane  of  being,  mak 
ing  it  easy  for  them  to  reach  it.  The  Bible  makes  no 


10  THE   CHRISTIAN   CALLING. 

such  limitations,  no  reservations,  no  exceptions.  "  "Who 
soever  will,"  —  "  All  men  everywhere,"  —  "In  every 
nation," — "  From  the  least  even  unto  the  greatest "  ;  — 
these  are  the  broad  terms  of  the  Gospel  charter,  the 
strict  terms  of  the  Gospel  requisition.  Nor  is  the  Chris 
tian  calling  a  whit  the  less  universal  and  impartial  for 
the  reason  that,  as  we  were  just  now  showing,  it  is 
special,  requiring  a  personal  consecration.  On  the  con 
trary,  its  speciality  is  the  very  ground  of  its  universality. 
God  himself,  as  the  Infinite  Spirit,  is  far  more  readily 
recognized  as  having  to  do  with  the  whole  human  race, 
for  the  distinctness  of  his  personality.  The  more  per 
sonal,  the  nearer  to  all.  The  forces  of  nature  lose 
nothing  of  their  diffusive  or  penetrative  action  by  the 
distinctness  of  the  laws  that  govern  them.  The  more 
definite,  the  more  important,  and  the  more  searching 
you  make  the  Christian  command  to  be,  the  more  will 
the  principles  of  its  righteousness  send  their  pressure 
into  every  department  of  life,  and  the  spirit  of  its  char 
ity  diffuse  its  fragrance  into  every  nook  and  corner  of 
the  household  of  humanity.  Nothing  in  the  adminis 
tration  of  Christianity  is  better  proved  by  trial  than 
this. 

If  there  were  any  variations  excusing  men  from  this 
calling,  they  might  be  suspected  to  exist  either  (1.)  in 
the  unlike  constitutions  of  men's  minds,  or  (2.)  in  their 
unlike  external  conditions,  or  (3.)  in  the  unlike  ages 
when  they  appear ;  —  in  other  words,  either  in  their 
nature,  their  place,  or  their  time.  Yet  how  far  these 
things  are  from  really  constituting,  in  the  Christian 
view,  an  apology  for  disregarding  the  duty  of  a  dis 
ciple  ! 

Take    the    inequalities    of   intellectual    equipment. 


THE  CHEISTIAN   CALLING.  11 

There  is  not  much  likelihood  of  men's  seeking  a  re 
lease  from  taking  up  the  Christian  work  and  cross  on 
a  plea  of  mental  infirmity.  One  of  the  last  confessions 
extorted  from  vanity  is  that  of  inferiority  there.  More 
probably  the  pretence  of  exemption  will  arise  in  the 
opposite  quarter,  and  be  a  pretence  of  gifts  or  a  culture 
superior  to  the  need  of  faith,  independent  of  the  humil 
iating  doctrines  of  the  Crucified.  Yet  in  this  very  pas 
sage  we  have  a  sublime  strain  of  prophetic  utterance 
from  Paul,  coming  with  such  irresistible  power  of  in 
spiration,  and  with  such  self-attesting  credentials  of 
the  Spirit  of  Truth  in  its  majestic  affirmations,  as  to 
supersede  argument,  and  leave  the  poor  conceits  of 
irreligious  knowledge  and  genius  to  contempt.  ""Where 
is  the  wise  ?  Where  is  the  disputer  of  this  world  ? 
Hath  not  God  made  foolish  the  wisdom  of  the  world  ? 
The  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God.  The  foolishness 
of  God  is  wiser  than  men.  For  the  preaching  of  the 
cross  is  to  them  that  perish,  foolishness,  but  unto  them 
which  are  called,  Christ,  the  power  of  God  and  the  wis 
dom  of  God." 

Or  take  the  excuse  of  unfavorable  outward  fortunes. 
"What  are  those  fortunes  ?  Poverty  and  hardship  ? 
Unto  the  poor  the  Gospel  was  first  preached,  and  in 
every  age  the  facts  show  that  it  is  with  them  that  its 
simple  and  consoling  truths  have  found  their  most 
cordial  and  fruitful  reception.  Wealth  and  station, 
then  ?  But  unto  whom  much  is  given,  of  them  shall 
much  be  required.  The  ten  talents  must  answer  for 
ten  talents  more  returned  unto  the  Lord  who  reckon- 
eth.  Or  is  it  the  busy  and  contented  state  of  pecuniary 
mediocrity  or  a  competency  ?  Yet  that  is  the  very 
state  which,  of  all  others,  a  wise  man  is  represented  as 


12  THE  CHRISTIAN  CALLING. 

praying  for,  and  which  common  sense  would  pronounce 
most  favorable  to  a  useful  and  healthy  piety.  Indeed, 
nothing  is  plainer  than  that  the  whole  honest  spirit 
of  our  religion  disallows  the  evasive  notion  that  any 
position  can  liberate  the  spiritual  child  of  God  from 
loving  his  Maker,  serving  his  Saviour,  and  living  in 
godly  charity  with  his  fellow-men. 

And,  thirdly,  the  changing  aspects  of  the  times  are 
just  as  powerless  to  acquit  any  single  conscience  of  its 
accountability  for  a  Christian  walk  and  conversation. 
Principles  do  not  change  with  periods.  The  Christ  of 
whom  it  is  written  that  he  is  the  same  yesterday, 
to-day,  and  for  ever,  is  not  subject  to  fluctuation,  either 
in  the  measure  of  his  aifection  or  in  his  demands  for 
allegiance.  If  the  tendencies  of  an  age  are  material 
istic,  so  much  the  more  need  of  men  and  women  whom 
the  world  cannot  purchase,  nor  the  flesh  seduce,  nor 
the  Devil  deceive.  If  the  times  are  hard  and  un 
believing,  it  is  out  of  such  epochs,  by  men  whose  faith 
is  a  light  shining  in  a  dark  place,  —  lamps  in  the  cave, 
—  that  the  noblest  revolutions  have  sprung,  the  abomi 
nable  idols  of  the  den  have  been  discovered,  and  new 
days  of  hope  have  dawned.  If  the  times  are  prosper 
ous,  then  it  is  a  call  for  money  and  commerce  and 
learning  to  spread  the  Christian  kingdom,  setting  up 
the  cross  wherever  the  heathen  imagine  a  vain  thing. 
Or  if  they  are  corrupt  and  vile,  then  it  is  for  brave  wit 
nesses  to  live  this  loftier  life,  to  stand  unstained  by  all 
pollutions,  and,  though  vice  should  combine  with  the 
voluptuousness  of  Corinth  an  American  energy,  mix 
the  appetites  of  the  ancient  Paganism  with  the  inso 
lence  of  the  new,  and  revive  the  sorceries  of  the  familiar 
spirits  of  old  among  the  destructive  theories  begotten 


THE  CHEISTIAN   CALLING.  13 

in  the  prurient  imaginations  of  yesterday,  yet  to  keep 
themselves  unspotted  from  the  world. 

The  true  lesson  when  some  fresh  outbreak  of  in 
iquity  in  the  very  seats  of  law  puts  back  the  hopes  of 
civilization,  or  some  almost  incredible  story  of  crime 
alarms  the  security  and  sickens  the  senses  of  the  land, 
is  not  a  general  distrust  of  man  or  of  woman ;  it  is  not 
a  weighing  off,  by  human  judgment,  of  guilt  against 
guilt,  as  if  we  held  the  balances  of  Omniscience ;  it  is 
not  to  lend  a  frightened  ear  to  those  sweeping  suspi 
cions  which  are  the  tempter's  capital,  and  the  poison 
of  all  peace ;  it  is  not  even  a  diminished  confidence 
in  the  principle  and  the  honor  which  in  Christ's  new 
born  souls  still  live,  —  thank  God  !  and  live  because 
He  lives,  —  as  dear  and  sacred  and  mighty  warders  of 
the  purity  of  home  as  ever ;  but  it  is  this  rather,  — 
that  there  is  no  safeguard  on  earth  for  any  one  sin 
gle  virtue  but  the  calling  wherewith  the  Christian  is 
called ;  no  sufficing  restraint  on  the  wild  and  riotous 
depravity  of  man,  but  a  reverent  faith  in  God ;  no  in 
corruptible  keeper  of  a  household  or  a  heart,  but  a 
principle  of  right  such  as  that  Redeemer  planted,  who 
was  holy,  and  harmless,  and  undefiled,  and  separate 
from  sinners. 

My  friends,  a  near  and  natural  illustration  of  this 
uniformity  of  the  Christian  calling  and  responsibility 
occurs  in  the  very  composition  of  an  assembly  of  Chris 
tian  worshippers. 

Ye  see  your  calling,  families.  On  every  domestic 
sanctuary,  its  sympathies,  its  cares,  its  wear  and  waste 
of  sensibility,  its  wealth  and  joy  of  love,  tenderness, 
pity,  and  tears,  Christ  lays  the  law  of  a  consecrated 
and  holy  economy.  Set  thy  house  in  order ;  for  these 


14  THE  CHRISTIAN   CALLING. 

earthly  tabernacles  are  to  be  dissolved.  And  while 
they  last,  they  take  in  no  calm,  no  abiding  light,  save 
through  invisible  windows  that  open  upward  into  the 
unshadowed  and  undivided  Heaven. 

Ye  see  your  calling,  parents.  To  exercise  your  trust, 
I  will  not  say  religiously,  but  even  honorably,  you  will 
have  to  feel  that  the  Christian  character  of  every  child 
committed  to  your  charge,  and  living  in  sight  of  your 
life,  is  immeasurably  the  most  urgent  interest  of  your 
parental  office.  The  religious  welfare  of  these  souls, 
you  will  confess,  does  not  rest  on  the  same  basis  as 
their  social,  literary,  worldly  advancement,  but,  high 
as  that  is,  on  a  higher  and  stronger.  Whatever  hinders 
or  endangers  that,  in  speech  or  example  or  neglect, 
inflicts  a  wrong  too  terrible  to  trace.  The  lines  of  its 
bad  influence  run  out,  beyond  where  any  eye  or  thought 
can  follow  them.  There  is  a  cause  of  Christian  earnest 
ness  to  be  carried  forward ;  a  work  of  Christian  training 
to  be  done ;  a  privilege  of  Christian  comfort  and  sym 
pathy  and  mutual  help  to  be  diffused,  by  self-denial, 
watchfulness,  counsel,  and  prayer,  —  a  calling  where 
with  all  who  are  intrusted  with  the  solemn  embassy  of 
paternity  or  maternity  are  alike  called. 

And  ye  see  your  calling,  men  of  action.  "I  have 
written  unto  you,  young  men,  because  ye  are  strong, 
and  the  word  of  God  abideth  in  you."  Is  there  not 
something  more,  in  this  vocation,  than  some  of  you  have 
fairly  apprehended  ?  Something  on  which  conscience, 
waking  to  a  livelier  activity,  will  take,  if  you  will  let  it, 
a  stronger  and  firmer  hold  ?  You  have  a  field  not  sur 
passed,  you  will  say,  for  Christian  opportunity  in  the 
world;  powers  that  never  will  be  freer,  nor  less  com 
promised  with  the  usages  of  evil;  standards  of  public 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CALLING.  15 

opinion  that  are  in  your  own  hands,  to  be  nobly  mould 
ed  by  you,  if  the  good  will  stand  together,  or  for  you  to 
be  ignobly  moulded  by,  if  you  are  servile ;  temptations 
to  be  overcome,  prizes  to  be  won.  You  have  a  Church 
of  Christ  inviting  you  and  offering  you  its  gracious  aids 
and  benedictions.  However  sin  may  have  spoilt  -the 
past,  do  not  despair.  If  you  sit  weeping  with  Mary  by 
the  sepulchre  of  some  buried  joy,  a  voice  may  yet  break 
in  on  your  grief,  "  The  Master  is  come  and  calleth  for 
thee."  If  you  lie  blind  and  weak  by  the  wayside  with 
Bartimeus,  the  animating  news  may  yet  lift  you  to  your 
feet,  "  Rise !  he  calleth  thee." 

To-day,  then,  fellow-worshippers,  we  are  to  put  it  to 
ourselves,  whether  this  cause  of  our  Redeemer  does  not 
signify  either  more  or  less  than  our  treatment  makes  it : 
whether,  if  its  claim  is  genuine,  and  its  doctrine  valid, 
it  does  not  require  of  us  a  more  explicit,  profound,  all- 
controlling  acknowledgment ;  whether  consistency  does 
not  enjoin  it  upon  us  to  enthrone  this  faith  over  all  the 
practice  of  our  life,  —  making  every  abode  of  kindred 
bodies  a  home  of  Christian  hearts ;  making  all  the  social 
pleasures  and  the  literary  competitions  of  youth  to  be 
just,  generous,  blameless;  —  all  honors  to  be  gained  and 
knowledge  laid  up,  heartily,  for  a  usefulness  whose  rec 
ord  is  beyond  this  world ;  and  all  our  public  aifairs  so 
ordered  as  to  lay  the  foundations  of  intellectual  emi 
nence  and  civil  glory  on  this  only  sure  and  stable  Rock, 
the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

If  we  both  see  and  follow  this  calling  of  our  Lord,  — 
when  he  calls  again,  and  calls  "  his  own  by  name,"  it 
will  be  to  glory  and  honor  and  immortality. 


SEEMON    II. 

THE   ANSWER    OF    FAITH. 

AND  ERE  THE  LAMP  OF  GOD  WENT  OUT  IN  THE  TEMPLE  OF 
THE  LORD,  WHERE  THE  ARK  OF  GOD  WAS,  AND  WHEN  SAMUEL 
WAS  LAID  DOWN  TO  SLEEP,  THE  LORD  CALLED  SAMUEL,  AND  HE 
ANSWERED,  "  HERE  AM  I ;  SPEAK,  FOR  THY  SERVANT  HEARETH." 

—  1  Sam.  iii.  3,  4,  10. 

IF  pride  should  object  that  the  text  is  only  the  lan 
guage  of  a  child,  it  will  be  enough  to  answer,  that 
he  was  a  child  of  faith,  which  is  wiser  than  the  wisest 
brain,  and  to  recall  and  put  with  it  the  unquestionable 
words  of  Christ :  "  Except  ye  become  as  little  children, 
ye  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

Setting  aside  the  unbelief  that  rejects  it,  and  the  un 
concern  that  neglects  it,  there  are  undoubtedly  two  views 
taken  of  the  nature  of  the  thing  we  call  Christianity. 
One  represents  the  world  as  a  field  of  man's  work,  and 
so  calls  on  men  to  put  forth  their  self-impelled  activity 
in  it ;  the  other  represents  it  as  a  scene  of  the  work  of 
God  in  Christ,  and  calls  on  men  to  witness  his  presence, 
to  welcome  his  spirit,  and  to  make  themselves  willing 
and  obedient  instruments  in  his  hand.  A  perfect  rec 
onciliation  of  these  would  be  Christianity  realized ;  but 
in  their  divorcement  is  the  denial  of  the  incarnation, 
the  very  matter  of  heresy,  the  loss  of  the  supernatural 


THE   ANSWER   OF   FAITH.  17 

Gospel  gift,  and  the  bereavement  of  the  immortal 
hope.  Self-will  would  be  the  spring  of  life  in  the  one 
case,  faith  in  the  other.  One  would  ask  of  its  own 
mind,  "  What  shall  I  do  ?  "  The  other  of  the  Divine, 
"  What  wilt  thou  have  me  do  ?  "  The  one  stimulates  it 
self  by  the  friction  of  human  effort  on  its  own  level ;  the 
other  opens  itself  in  prayer  to  be  stimulated  by  an  inspira 
tion  from  above.  One  says,  every  morning,  at  every  be 
ginning  of  a  task,  or  every  turn  in  the  way,  "  Lord,  here 
am  I ;  send  me  ;  lead  me  "  ;  the  other,  "  Fellow-men, 
here  I  am ;  make  room  for  my  wit  and  my  enterprise." 
One  is  Samuel  in  the  temple  ;  the  other  is  Saul  fronting 
the  Philistines.  Both  say,  "  I  will  arise,"  but  one  adds, 
"  and  will  go  to  my  Father,  and  will  arise  for  that  pur 
pose."  Both  resolve,  "  I  will  work  out  my  salvation," 
but  one  first  confesses,  "  It  is  God  that  worketh  in  me 
both  to  will  and  to  do."  So  it  was  from  the  very  begin 
ning.  In  the  twilight  of  history  stand  two  figures,  — 
brothers,  —  patriarchs.  Both  tended  their  flocks,  and 
wrought  in  "  sad  sincerity  "  all  the  day ;  but  before  one 
of  them,  when  the  night  fell,  and  he  slept  in  the  pasture, 
with  a  stone  for  his  pillow,  the  angels  of  God  ascended 
and  descended,  and  earth  no  less  than  heaven  became  a 
Bethel,  house  of  God.  One  would  give  us  Saul  of  Tar 
sus,  rushing  on  in  his  headstrong  and  unhallowed  zeal  to 
Damascus  to  persecute  the  best  benefactor  he  ever  knew ; 
the  other  is  Paul  the  Apostle,  penetrated  by  the  voice  *of 
Jesus,  humbled  by  the  light  above  him,  "  not  disobedient 
to  the  heavenly  vision,"  saying,  "  I  can  do  all  things, 
through  Christ  strengthening  me." 

We  need  not  undervalue  either  the  toiling  hand  or 
the  trusting  heart.  Work  is  too  noble  and  too  much 
needed  to  be  even  indirectly  disparaged.  The  world 


18  THE   ANSWER   OP   FAITH. 

everywhere  waits  for  more  of  it,  —  fruitful,  righteous, 
cheerful  work.  The  earth  is  to  be  subdued  ;  and  it  can 
be  subdued  in  no  other  way.  Loads  of  oppression  are 
to  be  lifted  off.  Ignorance  is  to  be  instructed.  Strong 
poor  men  are  to  be  guided  to  their  task,  and  paid  their 
wages.  Weak  poor  men  are  to  be  helped,  till  they  grow 
strong.  Superstition  is  to  be  flooded  with  pure  light. 
Error  is  to  be  discrowned.  Partition-walls  of  prejudice 
and  pride  are  to  be  broken  through.  Nature  is  to  be 
made  the  servant  of  man,  and  her  forces  tools  in  the 
grasp  of  thought.  No ;  the  question  is  not  whether 
men  shall  work,  but  how  they  shall  work  to  a  purpose, 
i.  e.  work  rightly.  Here  the  voice  of  Christ  speaks, 
and  speaks  unmistakably.  It  says,  To  work  rightly, 
to  work  effectually,  you  must  work  from  God,  —  con 
sciously,  faithfully,  piously,  from  God.  His  Christ 
must  be  your  leader  ;  his  Spirit  your  law  ;  his  will  your 
motive.  Not  as  out  of  yourself  alone,  but  out  of  him, 
must  your  power  come.  And  faith  is  the  feeling  that 
confesses  it;  prayer  is  the  hand  that  draws  it  down. 
He  who  knew  all  that  is  in  man  testifies  this  again  and 
again.  It  was  to  convince  us  of  it,  that  he  came  into 
the  world.  If  we  are  Christians,  we  shall  hold  that  no 
work  is  done  well  that  is  not  done  religiously.  Philoso 
phy  is  not  here  our  authority ;  we  have  an  altar,  of  which 
they  have  no  right  to  eat  who  serve  that  tabernacle. 
Yet  the  highest  philosophy  would  say  the  same  thing. 
To  be  efficient,  labor  must  be  hearty ;  and  when  we  say 
the  heart  goes  into  it,  we  mean  simply  that  faith  goes 
into  it.  In  moral  enterprises,  a  thing  must  be  believed 
in  before  it  can  be  done.  We  are  born  into  a  spiritual 
estate,  and  we  cannot  live  worthily  ol  it,  nor  be  educated 
into  a  fit  adjustment  to  it,  till  we  behold  the  facts,  the 


THE   ANSWER   OP   FAITH.  19 

verities,  the  obligations,  the  destiny,  that  pertain  to  us 
by  virtue  of  our  spiritual  inheritance.  No  life  is  truly 
lived  that  is  not  lived  in  the  spirit  of  him  who  arose  in 
the  temple  and  answered  the  heavenly  summons  with 
his  reverent,  "  Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth." 
For  he  seems  like  only  a  prophecy  of  that  other  child 
born  later  for  a  yet  diviner  ministry,  who  also  spoke  in 
the  temple  and  said,  "  Wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  about 
my  Father's  business  ?  " 

The  first  word  of  the  Bible  Luther  ever  read,  out  of 
the  Bible  itself,  at  Erfurth,  his  biography  tells  us,  was 
the  story  of  Hannah  and  "  her  child  lent  to  the  Lord 
for  ever  "  ;  and  the  beautiful  narrative,  so  full  of  fresh, 
prophetic  meaning  to  his  ritual-laden  spirit,  drew  him  on 
to  the  study  of  the  whole  Holy  Word,  till,  through  the 
text,  "  The  just  shall  live  by  faith,"  as  through  the  gates 
of  the  morning,  the  full,  clear  light  of  the  new  day  broke 
in  upon  his  soul.  The  story  of  Eli,  so  striking  that  it 
has  passed  into  the  arts  as  well  as  religion,  places  us  at 
a  most  significant  crisis  in  the  ecclesiastical  fortunes  of 
the  chosen  nation.  It  is  the  grand  moment  of  transi 
tion  from  the  priest  to  the  prophet.  Wafted  incense, 
the  fat  of  beasts,  gorgeous  sacerdotal  vestments,  the 
sacrificial  pomp  of  the  priesthood,  —  hitherto  these  have 
been  the  only  medium  of  intercourse  between  earth, 
and  heaven.  But  now  a  new  order  of  worship,  more 
spiritual,  more  simple,  more  real,  is  to  be  installed. 
The  day  of  the  prophet  has  come,  —  bold  rebuker  of 
kings  and  chieftains,  —  sharp  discerner  between  light 
and  darkness,  between  truth  and  lies,  —  the  unsparing 
censor  of  the  corruptions  of  government,  of  the  abuses 
of  law,  of  the  idolatries  and  worldliness  of  the  people. 
Superannuated  Eli,  representative  of  the  priestly  formal- 


20  THE   ANSWER   OF   FAITH. 

ism,  slumbers  in  the  temple-court.  Young  Samuel, 
first  of  the  prophets,  type  at  once  and  herald  of  the 
new  ministry  of  righteousness,  wakes  by  night,  hears  the 
whisper  of  God's  spirit,  and  answers  with  the  prompti 
tude  of  a  vigilant  faith.  "  The  priestly  system,"  it 
has  been  well  said,  "  boasts  of  being  immutable  and  un 
improvable  ;  all  its  veneration  is  for  the  past,  not  sym 
pathetic  nor  prospective  ;  it  turns  its  back  upon  the  liv 
ing,  and  bows  the  head  and  bends  the  knee  to  departed 
ages.  It  involves  a  distant  Deity,  a  mean  humanity,  a 
servile  worship,  a  physical  sanctity,  and  a  retrospective 
reverence."  But  now  comes  the  prophet  "  commissioned 
from  the  Divine  nature  to  sanctify  the  human.  His 
business  is  to  bring  the  finite  will  and  the  infinite  into 
immediate  and  thrilling  contact.  An  earnest  speech,  a 
brave  and  holy  life,  truth  of  sympathy,  severity  of  con 
science,  because  freshness  and  loftiness  of  faith,  —  these 
natural  sanctities  are  his  implements  of  power.  The 
prophetic  character  involves  the  ideas  of  a  spiritual 
Deity,  a  noble  humanity,  a  loving  worship,  individual 
holiness,  and  a  prospective  veneration." 

At  this  precise  point  of  history  the  priest  gives  way, 
the  prophet  appears.  Old  Eli  sleeps  by  his  altar ;  Sam 
uel,  with  eager  faculties,  hears  that  voice  which  no 
sacerdotal  ear  could  hear,  and  answers,  "  Speak,  Lord  ; 
thy  servant  heareth." 

It  is  a  transition  symbolical  of  what  may  go  on  in  the 
individual  heart,  yours  or  mine.  When  we  pass  from 
a  mere  outward  compliance  with  religious  forms  to  a 
hearty  adoption  of  their  life ;  when  we  turn  from  sleepy 
ceremonies  that  satisfy,  to  the  searching  devotions  that 
humiliate  and  so  arouse  us ;  when  we  cease  building 
on  a  proud  moral  complacency,  and  come  straight  to  our 


THE  ANSWER  OP  FAITH.  21 

Father,  in  our  Redeemer,  and  beseech  him  to  speak,  and 
long  to  hear,  instead  of  veiling  his  presence  behind  nat 
ural  laws  or  second  causes  ;  —  then  we  have  made  the 
whole  passage  from  Jewish  externalisni,  which  dies,  to 
Christian  spirituality,  which  is  immortal.  We  have 
gone  from  works  that  have  no  living  root,  barren  and 
fruitless,  to  the  faith  that  ever  works  by  love,  and  so 
yields  fruit  for  ever,  an  hundred-fold.  The  theory  of 
the  priest  is,  that  Heaven  is  to  be  propitiated  by  a  round 
of  meritorious  acts  or  forms.  The  truth  of  Christian 
prophecy  is,  that  we  reach  salvation,  and  find  heaven, 
just  so  far  as  we  practically  believe  in  our  Saviour,  and 
walk  and  speak,  and  buy  and  sell,  and  marry  and  die, 
in  his  spirit. 

Now,  different  periods,  places,  communities,  have  their 
peculiar  perils.  The  business  of  Christianity  is  to  meet 
with  its  positive  and  inexhaustible  power  just  the  im 
pending,  pressing  danger.  Its  reconciling  spirit  is  one, 
universal,  unchangeable ;  but  its  forms  of  application 
are  not  stereotyped,  nor  its  protests  everywhere  the  same. 
"With  the  recluses  of  Port  Royal,  and  the  monks  of  St. 
Edniondsbury,  work  needed  more  to  be  preached  than 
faith  ;  and  the  resolute  preacher  who  roused  the  dream 
ers  to  action  was  the  true  prophet  of  the  Lord.  But 
contemplation  is  not  much  our  habit.  Quietism  is  not 
the  modern  excess.  Dreaming  is  not  our  American 
weakness.  Everything  tends  of  itself  to  external  dem 
onstration.  All  the  wheels  of  prosperous  enterprise 
are  running.  Action  is  spontaneous.  Indolence  may 
debilitate  individuals  ;  but  the  strong,  swift  march  of  the 
multitude  tramples  them  down,  or  crowds  them  aside. 
So  work  needs  less,  just  here,  to  be  preached  than  faith. 
Let  us  think  not  of  the  wants  of  other  centuries,  but  of 


22  THE  ANSWER  OP  FAITH. 

our  own  wants.  We  want  to  charge  all  this  human  en 
ginery,  this  useful  doing,  with  the  spring  or  motive  power 
of  true  good  in  God,  and  so  convert  it  to  Christ.  This  is 
Christianity.  This  is  what  churches  are  built  for,  Sab 
baths  are  appointed,  worship  is  kept  up.  You  might 
have  many  true  things,  noble  virtues,  —  manliness, 
honesty,  temperance,  kindness,  courage,  —  discoursed 
upon,  without  these.  Those  are  for  religion,  to  keep 
alive  the  conviction  and  love  of  Christ  in  men,  to  make 
them  feel  just  what  Samuel  felt  in  his  temple,  that  a 
personal  God  speaks,  to  be  obeyed,  and  a  Christ  has 
come,  to  be  formed  within. 

Get  on  in  the  world  ;  get  wealth ;  get  position  ;  enjoy 
yourself ;  and  in  doing  this  follow  your  own  best  ideas 
as  you  find  them  in  a  general  culture  of  your  powers 
and  in  the  laws  of  the  world,  by  consulting  your  moral 
sense,  and  the  judgments  of  society ;  do  about  right,  as 
the  standards  of  respectability  require :  — is  this,  or  not, 
a  prevailing  doctrine  of  man's  highest  relations  ?  Is  this 
what  has  come  about  in  the  name  of  "  religion,"  and 
what  passes  for  the  piety  of  the  churches  ?  The  result 
will  inevitably  be,  first,  a  lifeless  form  of  devotion,  a  pre 
tending  to  pray  where  there  is  no  prayer ;  next,  a  per 
ception  of  this  hollowness  by  sharp-sighted  minds  ;  next, 
a  terrible  recoil  of  scepticism,  and  a  standing  aloof  from 
sacred  institutions,  on  the  part  of  men  who,  however 
far  from  faith,  are  yet  too  clean  to  touch  a  lie ;  to  be 
followed,  I  suppose,  if  the  laws  of  human  nature  hold 
good,  by  some  honest,  penitent  return  to  a  living  in 
tercourse  with  the  living  Eternal  Spirit  that  has  waited 
patiently  all  the  while.  This  for  the  general  action  of 
Christendom,  —  the  history  of  the  Church  at  large.  But, 
meantime,  where  is  the  individual  ?  Where  are  we  ? 


THE  ANSWER  OP  FAITH.  23 

Are  we  taking  up  and  wearing  the  name  of  religion, 
while  our  souls  are  not  calling  earnestly  upon  God,  and 
not  beseeching,  through  evil  report  and  through  good 
report,  through  convivial  temptations  and  fashionable 
excitements,  and  profitable  dishonesties,  and  household 
irritations,  to  do  his  will  bravely,  and  abide  in  his  peace 
contentedly  ?  Can  we  say  in  the  midst  of  every  com 
pany,  every  plan  for  the  future,  every  hope  of  promo 
tion,  every  bargain,  every  study,  every  covert  "of  dark 
ness,  "  Lord,  I  wait  thy  command  ;  speak,  thy  servant 
heareth,  and  will  obey  "  ?  If  not,  then  that  thing  we 
call  religion  is  something  else.  That  happens,  only  in  a 
different  direction,  which  happened  on  a  large  scale  under 
the  Papal  hierarchy  in  the  Middle  Ages,  when  religion 
came  to  mean  a  set  of  monastic  vows,  —  when  a  "  re 
ligious"  person  was  not  a  righteous  man,  or  a  godly 
woman,  or  a  devout  child  anywhere,  but  a  member  of  a 
separate  community  shut  out  from  the  world,  —  and 
when  a  "  religious "  house  was  not  the  dwelling  of  a 
Christian  family,  adoring  and  serving  God,  but  of  some 
Dominican  or  Franciscan  order.  The  idea  of  a  real  re 
lation  to  God  will  have  gone  out,  and  a  notion  of  mortal 
power  and  luxury  have  come  in  in  its  place.  Honesty 
requires  that  the  name  shall  be  changed  with  the  thing. 
An  intelligent  traveller  in  South  Africa  states  that 
among  the  more  degraded  tribes  he  found  one,  where 
no  word  was  known  in  the  language  for  a  "  Supreme 
Being."  There  was  a  word  remembered  but  dimly  by 
only  here  and  there  an  old  man,  —  one  or  two  in  a 
thousand,  —  but  entirely  lost  to  the  mass  of  the  people, 
signifying,  "  Him  that  is  above."  By  gradual  steps  the 
very  name  of  the  Supreme  had  faded  out,  after  the 
vanishing  faith  in  him,  from  the  savage  soul.  What 


24  THE  ANSWER  OP  FAITH. 

will  it  be  to  the  real  advantage  of  our  civilization  when 
God  himself  has  been  put  out  of  all  our  thoughts,  and 
men  live  on  daily  in  utter  disregard  of  his  presence  and 
his  law,  if  only  by  virtue  of  our  superior  mastery  over 
the  arts  of  expression  we  preserve  the  articulate  sound 
that  names  him,  —  the  sound  by  which  believing  an 
cestors  once  heartily  called  upon  him,  and  each  holy 
tongue  said,  "  Speak,  Lord ;  for  thy  servant  heareth," — 
but  nothing  beside.  "  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me, 
Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

If  we  look  into  the  average  life  of  Christendom  to-day, 
we  find  there  much  bad  keeping  between  the  religious  lan 
guage  and  the  habit  of  religious  thought, — or  rather  the 
habit  of  those  anxious  thoughts  which  occupy  the  place 
that  belongs  to  religion.  In  other  words,  Are  even  the  bet 
ter  thought  and  purpose  of  men  really  religious,  or  ethical 
only  ?  Does  life  fix  itself  habitually  in  God,  take  its  de 
parture  from  him,  appeal  to  him,  ever  return  to  him,  and 
seek  eternal  rest  and  harmony  in  him  ?  or  does  it  strike 
out  in  a  bold  and  eager  search  after  something  of  its 
own,  feeling  along  by  its  own  hand  over  an  unbounded 
sea,  without  any  lamp  in  the  sky,  or  any  unvarying 
finger  to  determine  a  fixed  point,  "  dim  sounding  on  its 
perilous  way,"  not  having  God  in  all  its  thoughts  ?  If 
the  latter,  then,  while  the  old  language  remains  to  fill  up 
solemn  occasions,  to  sustain  the  appearances  of  worship, 
to  build  meeting-houses,  and  write  Sunday-school  books, 
and  repeat  public  prayers,  to  appease  the  traditional  de 
mand  for  pious  observance,  the  heart  of  the  whole  mat 
ter  is  still  wanting  ;  then  there  is  an  actual  contradiction 
between  the  phraseology  of  the  subject  and  the  sense  of 
it,  —  between  the  convictions  in  which  such  men  live, 
and  the  speech  and  ceremony  they  are  afraid  to  drop. 


THE    ANSWER   OP   FAITH.  25 

Now,  tliis  is  nothing  else  than  cant,  the  base  resort  of 
timidity;  superstition,  if  it  springs  from  a  nameless 
fear  of  evil,  —  hypocrisy,  if  it  springs  from  a  love  of 
superstitious  people's  approval,  or  a  desire  to  keep  on 
terms  of  commerce  with  old  respectability ;  but  in  either 
case  a  ghastly  piece  of  pretension,  —  a  falsehood.  Then 
the  world  is  right  in  charging  upon  ecclesiastical  func 
tionaries,  and  even  upon  Sabbath  assemblies,  unreality, 
or  worse.  Nothing  in  the  world  can  bring  sincerity 
back  but  a  reopening  of  the  interior  gates  and  avenues 
between  each  human  soul  and  Christ,  —  nothing  but  a 
free  and  faithful  turning  of  the  dependent  heart  to  the 
personal  Lord  of  its  life  ;  nothing  but  the  filial  and  rev 
erential  feeling  of  the  Prophet-child,  looking  ever  up 
with  obedient  faith,  "  Lord,  here  am  I ;  speak,  for  thy 
servant  heareth ! " 

It  seems  to  me  the  testimony  of  an  unprejudiced  lay 
man  of  our  times  —  one  of  the  most  penetrating  readers 
of  the  laws  of  impression,  and  one  of  the  most  original 
thinkers  —  has  value,  when  he  says,  incidentally,  "  I  be 
lieve  the  reason  that  preaching  is  so  ineffectual  is,  that 
it  oftener  calls  on  men  to  work  for  God,  than  to  behold 
God  working  for  them.  If,"  he  adds,  "  for  every  rebuke 
that  we  utter  of  men's  vices,  we  put  forth  a  claim  upon 
their  hearts  ;  if  for  every  assertion  of  God's  demands 
from  them  we  could  substitute  a  display  of  his  kindness 
to  them,  I  think  there  would  be  fewer  deaf  children 
sitting  in  the  market-place.'7 

Leave  criticism  aside.  Our  business  is  with  ourselves. 
We  are  a  company  of  persons,  suppose,  seeking  in  com 
mon  how  to  live  righteously,  to  be  helped  by  each  other's 
experience,  and  encouraged  by  each  other's  discoveries. 
Trying  other  things,  have  we  tried  fairly  the  power  of 


26  THE   ANSWER   OF   FAITH. 

intercourse  by  faith  with  the  Spirit  ?  Trying  our  own 
strength,  have  we  tried  God's?  Troubled  with  our  own 
cares,  business  perplexities,  household  sorrows  and  fears, 
or  with  the  frightful  tendencies  of  the  times,  have  we 
taken  all  these,  in  salutary  and  believing  confidence,  to 
our  Father,  as  little  children  take  their  troubles  to  father 
or  to  mother  ? 

That  our  religion,  in  its  explicit  and  holiest  sense,  is 
the  veritable  guide  of  our  life,  the  support  under  it,  the 
inspiration  quickening  it,  the  comfort  healing  it,  the 
promise  irradiating  it;  that  a  man  has  learnt  how  to 
live  only  when  his  daily  cry  is  precisely  that  old  cry, 
"  Thy  servant  heareth ;  here  am  I  at  thy  bidding,  for 
thy  service,  send  me"  ;  —  this  is  shown  in  the  fact  that 
such  a  doctrine  stands  in  exact  agreement  with  the  only 
true  theory  of  the  origin  of  life  itself.  We  talk  of  our 
dependence  011  Providence.  Who  is  Providence  ?  That 
language  means  nothing,  unless  it  means  that  of  every 
thing  which  exists  God  is,  every  instant,  the  ever-new, 
ever-conscious,  ever-active  Creator.  Strictly  speaking, 
there  is  but  one  life.  Our  personality,  individual  di 
versities,  moral  freedom,  are  all  carefully  secured,  yet 
secured  overy  moment  by  the  Spirit  himself  afresh. 
"  Man  lives  only  from  God.'7  Every  moment  this  crea 
tive  life  flows  in.  Creation  is  perpetual.  We  are  told 
of  whole  forests  springing  from  a  single  root.  The  uni 
verse  itself  is  such  a  manifold  growth,  in  affiliated  parts. 
Every  form  in  nature  is  a  branch.  The  Northman's 
fable  of  the  universal  tree,  whose  divine  sap  is  the 
energy  by  which  all  things  are  and  consist,  was  not  so  far 
from  the  true  cosmogony,  or  doctrine  of  creation,  as 
many  a  baptized  creed  which  locates  its  Deity  at  a  dis 
tance  from  his  creatures  in  space,  and  far  back  before 


THE    ANSWER   OF   FAITH.  27 

the  flood  iii  time.  These  throbbing  hearts  that  warm 
the  world  are  only  pulses  from  one  central  and  everlast 
ing  heart  of  love.  Those  unfading  stars  that  light  the 
sky,  and  shine  serenely  on  one  another,  are  only  so  many 
tongues  of  a  kindred  flame,  burning  up  from  one  con 
scious  and  eternal  fire.  Our  breath,  which  the  ancients 
called  spiritus,  is  the  breathing  spirit  of  the  Infinite 
One.  u  Thou  takest  away  their  breath,"  said  the  believ 
ing  Psalmist,  "  they  die,  and  return  to  their  dust."  The 
whole  Bible  is  written  to  teach  us  what  we  are  so  slow 
to  learn,  that  we  live  in  God,  and  shall  be  held  and 
judged  for  ever  in  the  righteous  laws  of  his  own  justice 
and  truth.  "  In  the  beginning  God  created,"  is  the 
sublime  key-note  of  the  Old  Testament.  "  I  can  do  all 
things  through  Christ  which  strengtheneth  me,"  is  the 
blessed  consolation  of  the  New.  "What  absurdity  and 
crime,  what  enormity  of  ingratitude,  as  well  as  defiance 
of  retribution,  must  it  be,  to  cast  off  the  parental  hand,  — 
to  hide  from  the  only  source  of  good,  —  to  rebel  at  the 
only  beauty  that  never  fades,  and  the  only  love  that 
never  cools !  It  was,  in  the  beginning,  as  it  ever  will 
be,  guilt,  and  craft,  and  fear,  that  hid  from  God's  face, 
when  ho  was  heard  coming  in  the  garden.  It  was,  as  it 
ever  will  be,  innocence,  and  candor,  and  simple  trust, 
that  answered  promptly  as  a  welcome  in  the  place  of 
prayer,  "  Lord,  here  am  I  ;  speak,  for  thy  servant 
heareth !  " 

But  life  is  not  only  given  and  regiven ;  it  has  to  be 
consecrated,  redeemed  from  sin,  and  spiritually  sancti 
fied.  So  this  doctrine  throws  equal  light  on  the  minis 
try  of  Christ  in  the  world.  In  fact,  your  whole  view  of 
that  ministry  will  take  its  shape  from  the  way  this  sub 
ject  lies  in  your  belief.  Christ  did  not  come  to  show  us 


28  THE   ANSWER   OF   FAITH. 

how  a  human  existence  can  be  moiilded,  and  the  world's 
evils  be  vanquished,  by  a  resolute  self-will.  It  is  amazing 
with  what  a  barren  notion  of  "  Christ,  the  example,"  some 
Christian  readers  have  been  satisfied ;  as  if  the  Son  of 
God  had  stood  apart  from  the  vital  seats  of  motive-power, 
the  springs  of  love  and  faith  in  men,  and  only  exhibited 
to  the  eye  of  admiration  an  external  model  of  excel 
lence,  which  his  followers  were  to  set  themselves,  with 
cool  faculties,  to  copy.  The  highest  spiritiial  works 
are  not  accomplished  in  that  way.  Exemplary  virtue  is 
never  the  loftiest  virtue.  Imitation  of  any  model,  how 
ever  high,  is  not  the  noblest  action  of  the  soul.  Influ 
ence,  as  the  very  etymology  of  the  word  might  teach,  is 
another  thing  from  that.  All  our  best  helps  are  spiritual 
gifts  or  forces  from  soul  to  soul.  Christ  came  to  be  a 
divine  personal  influence  in  the  world ;  i.  e.  that  in  and 
through  his  Person  the  Divine  life  might  veritably  and 
literally  flow  into  the  breasts  of  mankind.  He  came  not 
to  tell  us  the  manner  of  living,  but  to  communicate,  to 
pour  in,  upon  all  willing  and  receiving  hearts,  the  power 
of  living,  —  the  energy  that  acts  itself  spontaneously 
into  holy  thoughts  and  deeds.  To  that  end  the  Divine  and 
the  human  elements  are  perfectly  blended  in  him.  He 
is  the  Divine  Humanity  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth ;  the  Word 
from  the  beginning ;  the  "  Man  of  Sorrows,"  and  "  before 
Abraham  was,"  Son  of  Mary,  and  Son  of  God.  This 
constitutes  a  mediator.  In  order  that  God  might  gain 
that  love  and  that  trust,  —  in  order  that  man  might  lay 
hold  of  him  in  a  personal  "  way,  and  truth,  and  life," 
in  a  Saviour  made  in  all  points  like  himself,  and  even 
tempted  as  he  is,  the  Father  was  manifested  in  the  Son. 
The  world's  poor,  aching  heart  longed  to  see  and  to  feel 
that  heavenly  compassion, 'that  Divine  goodness,  and  it 


THE   ANSWER   OF   FAITH.  29 

came.  Bethlehem  and  Calvary  were  the  answer  to  that 
want.  And  so,  Christendom  over,  wherever  Christ  has 
been  most  personally  reverenced,  and  loved,  and  clung  to, 
and  sung,  and  celebrated,  and  followed,  there  his  religion 
has  had  its  most  positive  planting,  and  exercised  its  most 
effectual  control.  So,  it  is  said,  his  true  disciples  are 
"  partakers  "  of  his  life  ;  whoso  "  receiveth  "  him  —  not 
heareth  him  merely,  or  looketh  on  him,  but  "  receiveth  " 
him  —  "  hath  life  eternal."  "We  are  to  eat  his  flesh,  and 
drink  his  blood,  the  strong,  true  figure  says.  He  is  to  be 
formed  within  us.  He  gives  himself.  This  comports 
with  the  purest  and  simplest  philosophy  of  the  spiritual 
nature.  Surely,  if  Christ  merely  set  himself  up  as  a 
pattern  of  human  virtue  to  be  imitated,  he  did  not  un 
derstand  himself,  nor  his  work.  Then  he  could  not 
have  said,  "  As  I  live  by  the  Father,  so  ye  shall  live  by 
me  " ;  "I  in  them,  and  thou,  Father,  in  me,  that  all 
may  be  made  perfect  in  one." 

Objections  can  be  imagined.  It  may  be  said,  that 
when  we  make  it  man's  first  duty  to  wait  on  God,  as  a 
worshipper  and  servant  of  his  Spirit,  we  encourage  a 
tame,  abject  feeling,  by  making  everything  hang  in  sub 
jection  on  one  being.  But  what  kind  of  a  being  ?  Sup 
pose  he  is  Perfect  Goodness,  and  can  no  more  destroy  his 
child's  guarded  liberty  than  he  can  be  untrue  to  himself. 
Suppose  he  is  Boundless  Light,  and  holds  his  children 
subject  only  that  he  may  pour  the  more  steadily  upon 
them  his  spotless  brightness,  in  which  they  may  walk 
the  more  safely.  Suppose  he  is  Infinite  Affection,  so  that 
the  more  entirely  we  arc  his,  the  more  we  are  exalted, 
enlarged,  and  raised  in  the  dignity  of  man's  estate.  So 
we  learn  the  difference  between  the  servility  that  bows 
to  any  finite  masterdom,  and  the  joyous  inspiration  of 


30  THE   ANSWER   OF   FAITH. 

waiting  obediently  on  Him  "whose  service  is  perfect 
freedom." 

In  fact,  I  think  some  natural  analogies  must  have  ex 
plained  to  us,  that  the  most  inspiring  of  all  things  is  to 
feel  the  direct  action  of  a  greater  and  more  generous 
spirit  than  our  own.  Hence  it  is  that  we  enter  into  the 
great  instances  of  self-denial,  and  grow  disinterested  by 
them;  that  martyrs'  sufferings  awaken  aspiration  and 
stir  zeal ;  that  glorious  charities  kindle  enthusiasm  and 
brotherly  love  in  the  dullest  soul.  It  is  not  that  the 
cold  understanding  sees  something  there  for  the  cold 
will  to  adopt,  as  a  fine  virtue  for  a  yet  colder  selfishness 
or  pride  to  practise.  It  is  that  the  imcalculating  over 
flow  of  noble  sympathies  in  a  person  whose  contact  we 
feel,  bears  on  many  responsive  natures  with  it,  and  that 
personal  goodness  exerts  an  attraction  and  an  authority 
of  which  we  can  only  mark  the  tendency  and  feel  the 
blessing,  without  explaining  the  method,  or  estimating 
the  extent.  And  when  we  ascend  from  mortal  measures 
of  this  power  to  the  unsearchable,  we  take  with  us  an 
humble  illustration  how  the  one  spiritual  force  which 
most  liberates  and  exalts  -manhood  is  faith  reverently 
waiting  to  hear  the  order,  and  run  on  the  errands  of 
our  Lord,  how  obedience  to  him  becomes  the  perfect 
emancipation  of  the  soul. 

Or  it  might  be  said,  that  to  depend  on  another,  though 
he  be  infinitely  high  and  holy,  puts  the  grand  work  of 
man's  salvation  out  of  his  own  hands,  and  encourages 
personal  negligence  and  sloth.  And  so  we  might  con 
clude,  but  for  the  plain  and  familiar  spiritual  principle, 
that  no  motive  on  earth  is  so  efficient  to  prompt  action, 
to  rouse  energy,  to  stimulate  invention,  to  sustain  en 
durance  and  sacrifice,  as  personal  love.  Unless  this 


THE  ANSWER   OF   FAITH.  81 

principle  holds,  more  than  half  of  the  world's  literature 
is  a  lie,  and  its  charm  is  in  its  doing  violence  to  the  dic 
tates  of  our  nature,  instead  of  echoing  them.  Take  the 
nearest  illustration.  For  the  first  dozen  years  of  his 
life,  and  often  more,  each  of  us,  as  a  rule,  is  subject 
to  his  parents.  It  is  a  subjection  of  trust  and  affection 
on  the  one  side,  of  love  and  tenderness  on  the  other, 
and  so  the  best  possible  image  of  the  parentage  in  heav 
en.  Does  it  indispose  the  heart  for  service  ?  Does  it 
prevent  the  child's  activity  ?  Or  does  it,  in  healthy  and 
normal  cases,  beget  the  sacred  passion  for  grateful  obe 
dience,  and  the  life-long  eagerness  to  render  work  for 
work,  and  love  for  love  ? 

The  facts  of  experience  come  in,  and  turn  the  imagi 
nary  objection  into  a  positive  proof.  For  where  have 
the  most  practical  of  human  charities,  and  the  grand 
ameliorations  of  philanthropy,  had  their  birth  and 
growth  ?  Has  it  not  been  in  the  strong-holds  of  relig 
ion,  —  in  the  climate  of  Christian  faith,  —  in  the  breasts 
of  believers  ?  History  makes  her  undeniable  answer. 
The  love  of  God  has  created  and  warmed  the  love  of 
man.  Faith  has  fed  charity.  Prayer  has  inspired  benef 
icence.  In  the  martyrdoms  of  the  Church,  in  the  hos 
pitals  of  pestilence  and  war,  on  both  continents,  where 
rude  soldiers  and  dying  lepers  have  invoked  blessings  on 
the  sisters  of  mercy,  and  kissed  the  passing  shadows  of 
those  angels  of  human  compassion,  as  fast  as  one  section 
falls  before  the  contagion,  or  faints  with  famine,  another 
presses  up  to  fill  the  empty  places;  the  thinned  com 
panies  close  their  ranks  with  celestial,  cheerful  courage, 
and  the  august  ministry  of  Nazareth  goes  on.  Not  sel 
dom  the  most  contemplative  of  the  mystics  have  been 
the  most  abundant  in  alms-deeds.  Many  of  the  Quiet- 


32  THE    ANSWER   OF   FAITH. 

ists.  accused  of  an  inactive  and  selfish  piety,  were  really 
the  practical  philanthropists  of  their  time.  One  of  the 
chief  masters  of  the  sect  of  German  devotees  called 
"  The  Friends  of  God,"  of  the  fourteenth  century,  set 
down  by  their  enemies  as  visionaries  and  dreamers,  is 
found  writing  these  words,  worthy  of  any  humanity- 
preacher  of  the  nineteenth :  u  For  my  part,  I  would 
rather  there  were  less  of  excitement  and  transport,  less 
of  mere  sweet  emotion,  so  that  a  man  were  diligent 
and  right  manful  in  working,  for  in  such  exercise  do  we 
best  know  ourselves.  These  raptures  are  not  the  highest 
order  of  devotion.  And  this  I  say,  that  if  it  happened 
to  me,  that  I  had  to  forsake  that  lofty,  inward  work,  to 
go  and  prepare  comfort  for  some  sick  person,  I  should  go 
cheerfully,  believing  not  only  that  God  would  be  with 
me,  but  that  he  would  vouchsafe  me,  it  may  be,  even 
greater  grace  and  blessing  in  that  external  work,  under 
taken  out  of  true  love  in  the  service  of  my  neighbor, 
than  I  should  receive  in  my  season  of  loftiest  contem 
plation/'  All  fair  history  confirms  what  right  reason 
would  expect,  that  there  is  no  fountain  of  good  labors 
so  rich  and  unfailing  as  a  heart  that  ever  waits  and  calls 
on  God. 

So  the  doctrine  proves  itself  complete ;  not  narrow 
and  one-sided,  but  broad  and  all-embracing.  Out  of 
this  holy  waiting  upon  God  comes  the  resolute  action 
for  men ;  out  of  this  childlike  looking  upward  into  the 
spiritual  world,  the  manliest  pressing  forward  into  enter 
prises  for  the  world  around  you ;  out  of  the  believing 
prayer,  each  duty  of  the  day.  It  was  when  Hannah's 
son  laid  down  to  sleep,  ere  the  lamp  of  God  went  out  in 
the  temple.  —  the  ark  of  sacred  promise  resting  at  his 
side,  —  that  the  voice  called.  Faith  hallows  the  evening 


THE    ANSWER    OF    FAITH.  33 

and  the  morning,  and  makes  them  a  day  of  the  Lord. 
The  consecrated  disciple  rises  to  each  new  encounter 
with  his  lot,  in  a  reverent  vigilance  for  every  beckoning 
of  God's  hand.  He  falls  asleep,  each  night,  with  a 
sacred  curiosity  to  hear  that  further  revelation  of  the 
great  secret  and  mystery  of  being  which  the  daybreak  is 
sure  to  tell  from  the  Spirit.  He  finds  a  path  through 
the  intricacies  of  earthly  duty,  by  a  simple  reference  to 
the  benignity  of  the  Lord,  —  like  the  Psalmist,  who  fled 
from  the  onset  of  his  enemies,  and  the  strife  of  tongues, 
to  the  "  pavilion  of  the  Most  High."  He  quiets  the  im 
portunities  of  his  own  unbelieving  mind  by  confessing, 
t;  Thou  wilt  show  me  the  path  of  life  "  ;  like  Sir  Thomas 
Browne,  who  says  he  conquered  his  "  sturdy  doubts  and 
boisterous  objections  in  no  martial  posture,  but  on  his 
knees." 

The  revelations  of  God  are  not  ended,  if  only  there 
are  earnest  eyes  to  see  them,  though  the  lamp  has  gone 
out  in  the  Hebrew  temple.  His  voice  has  not  ceased 
speaking,  if  childlike  trust  listens,  though  the  ark  of  the 
elder  covenant  has  floated  away  into  darkness.  His 
glory  is  not  quenched  on  the  open  face  of  creation, 
though  it  shines  no  longer  in  the  Shekinah  over  the 
wings  of  the  cherubim.  Each  obedient  and  thoughtful 
heart  may  take  up  the  supplication,  as  the  poetry  of 
faith  has  paraphrased  it,  —  sermon  passing  into  song, 
and  exhortation  into  prayer :  — 

"  Still,  as  of  old,  thy  precious  word 
Is  by  the  nations  dimly  heard  ; 
The  hearts  its  holiness  hath  stirred 

Are  weak  and  few. 
"Wise  men  the  secret  dare  not  tell ; 
Still  in  thy  temple  slumbers  well 
Good  Eli :  O,  like  Samuel, 

Lord,  here  am  I ! 


34  THE    ANSWEH   OF    FAJTH. 


"Few  years,  no  wisdom,  no 
Only  my  fife  eaa  I  lay  down ; 
Only  my  heart,  Lord,  to  thy  throat 

I  bring ;  and  pray 
A  child  of  thine  I  may  go  forth, 
And  spread  glad  tidings  lhrn%h  die  earth 
And  teach  ad  hearts  to  know  thy  worth ! 

Lord,  here  ami! 

"  Young  lips  may  teach  me  woe,  Christ  saii: 
Weak  feet  cad  •emlmui  home  hare  led ; 

Small  hand*  hare  cheered  the  nek  one's  tt 

With  freshest  flowers ; 
O,  teach  me,  Father!  heed  their  sighs, 
While  many  a  soul  in  darkness  lie* 
Ami  waits  thy  message ;  make  me  wise  ! 

Lori, here  am  I! 

•Ami  make  me  strong ;  that,  staff  and  sr. 
And  guide  and  guardian  of  the  way, 
To  thee-ward  I  may  bear,  each  day, 

Some  fainting  soul. 

Speak,  for  I  bear  :  make  pure  in  heart 
Thy  face  to  see ;  thy  truth  impart, 
In  hut  and  hall,  in  dmrch  aad  man ! 

Lord, hero  am  I! 

**I  ask  no  heaven  till  earth  be  thine, 
Kor  glory-crown,  while  work  of  mine 
TTi  iiiiinilfc  here ;  when  earth  shall  shu 

Her  sins  wiped  out,  her  capow  free, 
Her  Toice  a  musk  unto  thee, 
For  crown,  new  wuk  give  thon  to  n . 
Lord,  here  am  I!" 

When  the  heavy  weights  of  disbursement  hang  upon 
our  will,  —  when  the  riddle  of  the  \nrlcTs  success  and 
failure  vexes  the  understanding, — ~nen  all  our  - 
ings  look  like  baffled  blows  upon  tfc  air,  —  when  the 
name  of  virtue,  put  near  any  deed  i  ours,  seems  like 
a  mockery  and  a  satire  on  all  we  su  and  do,  —  when 


THE   ANSWER   OF    FAITH. 

changed  faces  ci 

or  uiiiiiiswcrcd  aft«-ctioii<  tu.  into  RM 

-  with  ({•  '.in-  hcni;: 

our  h'-arts  niiik-  out,  in  tip;   lonir  nL'ht  I 

"Would  God    i:  ." —  then   whan 

tiling  to  do,  there  in  i\\<-  dark,  than  to  wait,  in  tin 
of  the  <•<  hild, —  ere  th<-  lamp  of 

quite  out.  —  to  li-t«-n,  and  tl. 
ks,   in    what«-\«T    tun«\    : 
fully,  "  Lord,  I  am  here,  thy   » 
nt  hcarcth  I  *' 

,  CJod  himself,  he  that  created  thec,  will  ai 
;    .          ••.•ill.-d  tin-.-  l.y  thy  name,  an< 
art  mine  ;  I   hav(-  n-di-.-iii«-d   the*- :    wli'-n   tl 
throu'jh   l\\<:   v>,  ,,d   tl 

tli«-  shall    not    overflow    tllCC.      V, 

walk<--t  through  .  thou  s-liali   not  !><•  l.nrne 

th'T   ^h:lll    tl  ijM.ii  thec.       1    am  th 

thy  5  \  and   my  dan; 

saith  the  Lord  Almii- 

Th'-p-   is  orijcr  in  th«-  spiritual  world,  as  it  lies 
andal'ov.-  us.    L '. : '•  •  -A  i t 

thiii 

futui 

Rai 


SEKMON    III. 

THE    FAITH-FACULTY. 

THE   THINGS    OF   THE    SPIRIT    OF   GOD ARE    SPIRITUALLY 

DISCERNED.  —  1  Cor.  ii.  14. 

THIS  is  addressed  to  persons  supposed  to  have  some 
concern  about  gaining  a  Christian  character,  and  to  be 
seeking  the  way.  It  presumes  us  to  be  risen  above  the 
stolidity  of  a  mere  sensual  satisfaction  into  a  posture 
of  spiritual  inquiry.  It  especially  meets  two  mistakes, 
not  uncommon,  nor  without  plausibility  ;  —  that  of  sup 
posing  that  the  whole  measure  of  Christian  obligation 
is  filled  out  by  a  development  of  moral  sensibility  and 
moral  performance ;  and  that  of  supposing  that  all 
Christian  truth  can  be  received  and  tested  by  the  in 
tellect. 

If  that  is  the  best  definition  of  education  which 
makes  it  consist  in  giving  a  man  the  right  use  of  his 
powers,  the  education  will  be  best  which  assigns  to 
each  of  his  powers  its  own  use,  and  does  not  require 
of  one  to  do  the  work  of  another.  Respecting  those 
faculties  of  man  that  are  more  purely  intellectual,  this 
is  generally  allowed.  But  it  is  just  as  true  of  what 
is  called  his  religious  or  spiritual  nature ;  and  in  the 
practical  acknowledgment  of  that  truth  will  come  a 


THE   FAITH-FACULTY.  37 

great  wave  of  spiritual  light,  a  great  gain  of  religious 
power,  —  if  indeed  such  a  discovery  shall  not  be  found 
indispensable  finally  to  any  commanding  action  of  the 
Christian  faith  in  the  world. 

Why  should  I,  or  why  should  you,  not  having  done 
so  before,  set  about  the  business  of  being  a  Christian, 
—  in  secret  principle,  in  open  confession,  in  consistent 
conduct?  This,  in  short,  is  the  question.  Christian 
ity  stands  on  earth,  the  Gospel  is  published,  Christ 
himself  was  born  at  Bethlehem,  and  died  at  Calvary, 
and  inspires  his  disciples,  to  give  the  answer.  But 
that  it  may  be  received  as  an  answer,  that  in  us  which 
the  voices  speak  to  must  hear ;  that  door  through 
which  only  the  heavenly  guests  can  enter,  must  be 
open. 

Every  good  that  is  possible  to  man  finds  something 
in  him  to  lay  hold  of  it ;  material  nourishment,  a  body  ; 
the  air,  lungs  ;  light,  eyes  ;  enterprises,  a  will ;  property, 
the  passion  of  ownership ;  beauty,  taste ;  science,  an 
understanding ;  friends,  affection.  On  the  other  hand, 
every  faculty  in  him  has  its  external  object,  and  an 
appropriate  exercise  in  reaching  towards  it.  This  is 
the  adaptation  of  the  creature  to  his  place ;  the  mu 
tual  fitness  between  man  and  his  home,  —  every  part 
of  man  and  some  part  of  his  surroundings.  Without 
this  complete  adjustment,  nature  would  be  a  riddle, 
the  mind  a  mockery,  history  a  failure,  and  our  Maker 
certainly  not  God. 

So  far  as  the  outward  condition  is  concerned,  this 
is  easily  found  out.  Even  in  the  more  external  move 
ments  of  the  intellect,  having  to  do  with  our  immediate 
wants,  and  necessary  to  provide  for  our  comfort,  it  is 
acknowledged.  If  we  fail  to  own  it  when  we  come  to 

4 


88  THE   FAITH-FACULTY. 

our  deeper  life,  passing  from  man  as  a  mind  to  man 
as  a  soul,  —  or  from  man  as  he  thinks  and  under 
stands,  to  man  as  he  feels,  aspires,  and  believes,  —  it 
will  not  be  because  the  analogy  fails,  but  only  because 
we  enter  a  region  we  have  kept  less  familiar,  and  whose 
objects  lie  farther  from  the  senses ;  —  the  senses  mean 
time  crowding  in  and  engrossing  attention. 

Every  competent  authority,  however,  affirms  that  man 
is  provided  with  a  spiritual  power,  for  discerning,  re 
ceiving,  and  doing  spiritual  things.  The  Word,  ex 
perience,  the  system  of  nature  in  other  departments, 
and  the  human  constitution  itself,  agree  in  that.  There 
are  spiritual  realities.  How  do  we  know  it,  or  what 
is  it  to  us  when  we  do  know  it,  if  there  is  not  an 
implanted  faculty  in  us,  capable  of  becoming  conversant 
with  those  realities  ?  There  is,  to  vary  the  expression, 
a  spiritual  world,  —  including  beings  and  facts  and 
laws  of  its  own.  How  strange  if  there  were  not  some 
part  of  ourselves  made  to  touch  it,  —  opening  out  on 
that  side,  —  and,  if  treated  purely,  if  dealt  with  ac 
cording  to  its  own  conditions,  forming  a  bond  of  kin 
dred  and  sympathy  between  our  whole  nature  and  that 
world  unseen!  Or,  if  you  prefer,  there  is  a  body  of 
religious  truth,  imposing  corresponding  duties  on  us, 
which  we  can  apprehend,  and  commune  with,  and  draw 
from,  only  by  a  distinct  energy,  whose  germ  God  planted, 
meant  for  that  end,  and  for  no  other. 

How  God  himself  exists,  an  Infinite  Person ;  how  his 
spirit  acts  on  human  spirits ;  the  divinity  of  the  man 
Christ  Jesus  ;  the  possibility  and  power  of  redemption  ; 
how  sin  can  be  forgiven ;  the  certainty  of  a  future 
life ;  the  great  laws  of  religious  improvement  and  de 
cay,  including  the  facts  of  salvation  and  retribution,  or 


THE   FAITH-FACULTY.  39 

Heaven  and  Hell ;  the  being  of  persons  not  living  in 
visible  bodies ;  —  these  are  among  the  things  obviously 
belonging  to  that  world,  that  body  of  truth,  that  scene 
of  spiritual  realities,  and  are  really  known  to  us  only 
through  a  spiritual  discernment,  or  faculty  of  faith, — 
as  outward  nature  is  known  by  the  senses,  and  its 
scientific  relations  by  the  understanding. 

After  this  enumeration,  nothing  need  be  said  of  the 
relative  rank  of  this  spiritual  part  of  man  among  the 
human  powers.  The  interests  it  embraces,  the  infini 
tude  it  touches,  —  the  fact  that  by  it  we  are  related 
to  God,  and  to  Eternity,  so  that  our  boundless  weal  or 
woe  depends  upon  it,  —  all  this  lifts  it  at  once  into  un 
questionable  supremacy.  If  it  exists  at  all,  it  is  the 
royal  thing  in  us,  and  rules  by  divine  right. 

Now,  if  we  begin  to  say  that  we  will  know  religion 
only  through  some  of  the  faculties  given  us  for  know 
ing  something  else,  that  we  will  not  set  about  being 
Christians  except  by  means  of  the  understanding,  or 
the  memory,  or  sensible  proof;  if,  when  we  are  called 
on  to  believe,  we  reply,  we  will  not  believe  because  we 
cannot  demonstrate,  —  whereas  if  we  could  demonstrate 
there  would  be  no  occasion  at  all  to  believe ;  if  we  say, 
we  will  not  trust  in  God,  nor  pray,  nor  credit  the 
Christian  Incarnation,  nor  accept  the  New  Testament, 
because  these  are  things  not  rationally  made  out,  be 
cause  we  have  stationed  logic  as  gate-keeper  to  let  noth 
ing  pass  that  cannot  be  framed  into  a  syllogism ;  —  then 
do  we  not  call  off  a  part  of  our  powers  to  do  a  work 
not  their  own,  and  for  which  they  are  not  fit  ?  Do  we 
not  miss  a  good,  possibly  an  infinite  one,  by  that  mis 
management  ?  Do  we  not  abuse  ourselves,  just  as  if 
we  should  insist  on  judging  poetry  by  rules  of  reason- 


40  THE   FAITH-FACULTY. 

ing,  or  learning  algebra  by  our  affections,  or  trying 
to  remember  a  language  we  never  studied  ?  You  say, 
you  cannot  reason  out  the  whole  Gospel  teaching. 
Very  well ;  the  Gospel  never  said  you  could,  nor  asked 
you  to  try.  The  Gospel  approaches  that  part  of  your 
nature  which  the  Creator  made  to  receive  it.  The 
things  of  the  Spirit  are  spiritually  discerned. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  we  leave  out  of  practice  and  out 
of  culture  one  of  the  faculties,  or  groups  of  faculties, 
planted  in  us  for  growth ;  if  we  fail  to  direct  it  to  its 
proper  objects,  and  to  nourish  it  on  its  natural  food,  then, 
like  other  unused  powers,  it  will  wither  and  die.  So 
much  will  be  not  only  taken  from  the  efficiency  and  the 
symmetry  of  our  being,  but  we  forfeit  all  the  wisdom 
meant  to  come  by  that  avenue.  Other  forces,  which  this 
ought  to  have  counterbalanced  and  checked,  will  grow 
rank  and  pernicious.  Nor  shall  we  ever  quite  know 
how  much  we  have  lost,  —  what  glories  and  joys  may 
have  been  shut  out,  —  what  bright  and  heavy-laden 
processions  from  the  gates  of  heaven  may  have  passed 
by,  such  as  might  have  filled  our  houses  with  honor, 
while  we  were  busy  making  terms  with  those  sharp  ex 
tortioners  and  publicans  of  the  brain. 

One  chief  difficulty  probably  consists  in  the  fact  that 
this  spiritual  faculty,  while  distinct,  is  yet  so  intimately 
and  so  variously  connected  with  others.  It  is  so  con 
nected,  because  man  is  a  complex  being ;  just  as  each 
of  our  powers  is  modified  by  its  companions.  As  the 
imagination  affects  the  judgment,  as  the  affections  mod 
ify  the  will,  as  the  memory  restrains  the  fancy  and 
helps  the  understanding,  or  as  the  logical  faculty  cools 
the  passions,  so  the  spiritual  faculty  may,  more  or 
less,  mix  with  all  these,  and,  in  turn,  be  strengthened 


THE   FAITH-FACULTY.  41 

or  weakened  by  their  suggestions.  It  was  intended  to 
be  so.  Yet,  out  of  that  necessity  doubtless  comes  a 
danger  that  faith  will  not  get  her  due  ;  and  for  the  cause 
just  now  assigned,  —  that  her  objects  are  more  remote, 
while  the  appetites  are  not  only  exorbitant  but  somehow 
disordered,  and  fallen  from  their  estate  of  purity. 

All  our  powers  exercise  reciprocal  influences.  To  a 
degree,  they  are  not  only  related,  but  interdependent, 
for  they  are  parts  of  one  living,  organic  creature.  In 
their  perfect  balance  would  be  the  perfection  of  charac 
ter.  Depravity,  of  all  sorts,  unsettles  that  balance.  It 
pulls  the  sovereign  from  its  throne,  sets  up  a  usurper  in 
selfishness,  raises  an  insurrection  of  passions,  and  leaves 
the  whole  commonwealth  in  discord.  Worst  of  all,  and 
first  of  all,  it  clogs  the  channels  whereby  illumination 
and  energy  flow  in  from  above,  and  so  at  once  multiplies 
our  enemies,  and  robs  us  of  our  weapons  of  defence. 

Another  obstacle  to  the  right  appreciation  of  this 
faculty  grows  out  of  the  indefiniteness  of  the  place  as 
signed  it  in  any  metaphysical  classification.  It  is  easy 
to  see  what  recognized  powers  are  adjacent  to  it ;  —  the 
affections,  because  the  character  of  God  and  the  first 
Christian  duty  is  love  ;  conscience,  because  the  discrim 
ination  between  right  and  wrong  draws  the  line  where 
religion  comes  in  contact  with  and  re-enforces  morality, 
or  practical  righteousness ;  reverence,  because  without 
that  there  would  be  no  worship  ;  the  desire  of  excel 
lence,  and  a  sense  of  the  Infinite,  if  these  are  to  be  reck 
oned  distinct  natural  powers,  because  both  of  them 
would  bring  important  elements  to  what  is  the  common 
understanding  of  religion.  Possibly,  if  philosophy  had 
completed  its  analysis,  all  that  we  mean  by  the  distinct 
spiritual  faculty  would  be  found  embraced  under  some 


42  THE   FAITH-FACULTY. 

of  its  names.  It  is  enough  that  we  know  the  faculty  by 
its  effects  ;  that  we  can  have  a  growing  consciousness  of 
it,  if  we  will ;  and  that  the  whole  resultant  action  of  all 
its  elements  is  faith,  —  the  New  Testament  faith,  —  not 
mere  belief,  not  mere  trust,  still  less  mere  opinion,  or 
vague  feeling,  but  faith.  We  may  call  it,  then,  without 
error,  the  faith-faculty. 

Very  largely,  it  is  subject  to  the  same  conditions,  as  to 
its  cultivation,  with  the  other  faculties. 

For  instance,  it  is  increased  by  a  separate  and  special 
discipline  of  its  own,  as  the  rest  are ;  with  its  own  ap 
paratus,  tuition,  and  practice.  As  the  understanding  has 
its  school,  the  affections  their  home,  the  artistic  faculty 
its  manipulations  and  galleries,  the  natural  sciences  their 
lectures  and  cabinets,  so  the  spiritual  power  has  its  own 
modes  of  impression  and  multiplication,  —  in  the  Bible 
and  its  filial  literature,  —  in  meditation,  rising  into  devo 
tion, —  in  the  Church  and  its  ordinances. 

Or,  secondly,  the  faith-faculty  may  be  assisted  indi 
rectly  by  the  healthy  exercise  of  all  the  other  powers. 
No  exclusive  possession  is  claimed  for  it.  It  rather  pen 
etrates  than  excludes ;  rather  leavens  than  destroys ; 
rather  sanctifies  than  slays.  All  that  is,  in  the  good 
sense,  natural,  it  tries  to  purify  and  preserve  ;  only  when 
it  meets  those  natural  sins  which  are  really  the  perver 
sions  and  degradations  of  nature  as  God  made  it,  does 
it  lay  the  axe  to  the  root  of  the  tree,  and  overturn,  and 
make  the  old  die  that  the  new  may  be  born.  Otherwise 
it  welcomes  all  the  other  powers  to  its  service,  in  their 
co-ordinate,  harmonious  operation.  Christianity  has  a 
body  of  facts,  to  which  it  refers  for  testimony,  —  facts  of 
history,  facts  of  human  nature,  —  and  therefore  it  wants 
the  understanding  to  grasp  and  hold  them.  So  long  as 


THE   FAITH-FACULTY.  43 

the  understanding  keeps  to  its  own  province,  and  does 
not  presume  beyond  its  limits,  there  is  agreement.  So 
have  these  Christian  facts  a  system  of  laws,  relations,  and 
doctrines  under  and  among  them  ;  and,  therefore,  the 
faith-faculty  asks  for  science  to  arrange  them.  So  long 
as  science  does  not  trespass  over  her  own  domain,  to  pass 
upon  what  is  not  hers,  there  is  only  concord  still.  So 
has  religion,  for  its  impressions  and  effects,  symbols  and 
forms  of  beauty,  and  calls  in  the  aids  of  poetry  and  art, 
architecture  and  music.  So  long  as  taste  does  not  un 
dertake  to  dictate  to  piety,  and  substitute  her  esthetics 
for  religious  principle,  all  is  harmonious.  Once  more, 
the  sequences  of  moral  and  religious  truth  involve  pro 
cesses  of  reasoning;  hence  theology  is  thankful  for 
sound  logic,  and  only  when  it  grows  meddlesome  and 
arrogant,  does  the  higher  authority  have  to  rebuke  it 
as  foolishness,  a  babbler,  —  "  science  falsely  so  called." 
And,  in  general,  since  sophistry  and  error  are  apt  to 
encumber  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel  with  artificial 
matter,  the  close-thinking  intellect  is  serviceable  in 
clearing  the  human  additions  away,  and  undoing  a  false 
reasoning  with  a  true. 

But,  apart  from  all  mixtures  and  modifications,  the 
spiritual  sight  has  a  sphere  of  its  own.  Things  are 
shown  to  it  not  shown  to  the  strongest  brain.  A  knowl 
edge  breaks  upon  the  earnest  heart,  waiting  at  the  Mas 
ter's  feet,  which  makes  the  wisdom  of  the  world  but 
folly.  Rendering  unto  the  understanding  the  things  of 
the  understanding,  we  must  render  unto  faith  the  things 
that  are  faith's.  We  are  not  to  say  that  till  we  can  com 
pass  the  heavenly  world  with  our  intellectual  measuring 
line,  and  clear  up  every  difficulty,  we  will  not  believe ; 
any  more  than  we  arc  to  say,  that  till  we  can  have  logic 


44  THE  FAITH-FACULTY. 

set  to  music,  we  will  not  learn  logic ;  or  that,  till  the 
propositions  of  geometry  are  put  to  us  in  brilliant  rhetoric 
we  will  not  study  geometry.  A  burst  of  feeling,  or  an 
impassioned  appeal,  may  find  a  graceful  place,  and  have 
a  persuasive  effect,  now  and  then,  in  a  legal  argument ; 
but,  whatever  else  we  may  think  of  it,  we  cannot  say  it 
is  a  part  of  the  argument.  And  a  purely  intellectual 
process  may  render  invaluable  aid  to  religious  truth,  but 
it  will  not  make  it  a  whit  more  true,  nor  necessarily  bear 
it  in  011  those  seats  of  feeling  and  faith,  where  it  must 
get  a  lodgment,  if  it  is  to  renew  the  fountains  of  life. 

It  is  to  the  faith-faculty  that  revelation  is  offered. 
Indeed,  revelation  would  be  impossible  without  it ;  and 
it  is  only  for  want  of  opening  it,  and  looking  through  it, 
that  some  men  doubt  whether  a  revelation  has  been 
made.  As  the  word  signifies,  revelation  is  an  uncover 
ing,  or  showing,  of  what  was  before  unseen,  —  utterly 
profitless,  of  course,  except  there  is  a  vision  to  behold 
what  is  shown.  Patmos,  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration, 
the  banks  of  the  Jordan,  Gethsemane,  would  be  all  spots 
of  common  earth  and  without  illumination  but  for  that. 
When  the  voice  from  above,  in  reply  to  the  Saviour's 
prayer,  "  Father,  glorify  thy  name,"  answered,  "  I  have 
both  glorified  it,  and  will  glorify  it  again,"  some  of  them 
that  stood  by,  rationalists,  said  that  it  thundered  ;  others, 
spiritually-minded,  said  that  an  angel  spoke  to  him.  To 
a  really  spiritual  mind  it  will  seem  no  strange  thing  that, 
when  an  epoch  like  the  advent  of  Christ  arrives,  and  the 
whole  course  of  the  world  is  to  be  changed,  the  habits 
of  the  material  scene  should  yield  to  the  stress  of  the 
spirit,  and  the  time  of  the  Messiah  be  signalized  by  that 
spiritual  world  breaking  through  a  little,  and  giving 
tokens  of  its  reality,  —  what  we  call  miracle.  To  ap- 


THE    FAITH-FACULTY.  45 

predate  the  revelation  will  require  a  vision  in  sympathy 
with  the  Christ  revealed.  Yet,  doubtless,  the  showing 
of  the  things  stimulates  and  quickens  the  vision.  Per 
haps  it  is  significant  of  this,  that  the  word  "  vision  "  is 
used  for  both,  —  the  faculty  seeing,  and  the  thing  seen,  — 
both  being  related  and  mutually  dependent. 

Revelation,  not  being  a  book  of  psychology,  docs  not 
describe  the  exact  place  that  spiritual  discernment  has 
in  a  metaphysical  system,  nor  even,  as  we  have  seen,  give 
to  it  a  metaphysical  name.  It  simply  refers  to  it  by  its 
action,  its  function,  which  is  faith.  Of  that  all  the  Bible 
is  full,  letting  us  see  the  faculty  by  its  fruit,  —  the  prac 
tical  not  the  speculative  way.  After  the  name  of  the 
Author  of  our  religion,  faith  is  the  chief  term  of  the 
Bible  ;  and  it  is  the  correlate  to  that  name.  The  Word 
is  forever  calling  on  men  to  believe.  Have  faith.  To 
many  people,  whose  spiritual  life  has  never  been  awak 
ened  and  exercised,  this  word  sounds  vague,  abstract, 
technical :  sounds  as  of  the  pulpit,  and  not  of  the  living 
world.  Yet,  in  the  light  of  this  truth,  as  we  have  seen 
it,  how  simple  and  how  natural !  Have  faith !  That  is, 
exercise  this  faith-faculty.  Use  it;  and  by  using  it, 
strengthen  it.  Open  the  soul.  Let  the  light  in.  Let 
the  prayer  be,  "  Lord,  I  believe ;  help  thou  mine  un 
belief." 

It  is  very  remarkable,  if  we  read  the  Evangelists  with 
this  view,  how  constantly  Christ  addresses  himself  to  this 
inward  vision.  He  evidently  expects  to  accomplish 
nothing  without  it.  His  parables,  his  warnings,  his  ten 
der  entreaties,  were  all  adapted  to  open  and  quicken  it. 
Till  that  was  done,  his  message  could  not  get  entrance. 
So  he  stands  waiting,  with  unspeakable  compassion  and 
love,  before  every  heedless,  unbelieving,  unrepenting 


46  THE   FAITH-FACULTY. 

heart :  "  Behold  I  stand  at  the  door,  and  knock."  He 
waits  for  the  inward  eye  to  open.  He  does  everything, 
says  everything,  that  is  possible  to  help  it  to  open. 
Without  that,  nothing  avails.  Even  miracles  would  be 
useless.  The  healer  of  sightless  men  came  to  cure  a 
worse  blindness  than  any  that  shuts  out  the  light  of  the 
sun.  His  errand  on  earth  was  not  to  restore  a  few  sick, 
or  palsied,  or  buried  bodies.  He  did  that  only  to  reach 
in,  to  startle,  to  raise  up,  the  deaf,  dumb,  paralytic, 
slumbering  soul  within.  It  was  the  Lazarus  of  a  lost 
humanity  he  was  seeking,  when  he  cried,  "  Come  forth,'' 
"  Loose  him,  and  let  him  go."  Accordingly,  before  he 
put  forth  these  special  wonders,  how  often  he  looked 
in  on  the  hearts  about  him,  to  see  if  there  was  that  in 
dispensable  readiness  that  would  justify  the  miracle, 
or  make  it  really  beneficent.  Sometimes  it  was  simply 
a  common  question,  as  if  to  fix  the  mind  :  to  Bartimeus, 
"  What  wilt  tliou  that  I  should  do  unto  tliee  ?  "  Some 
times  it  was  a  searching  requirement,  uncovering  in 
stantly  all  the  hidden  reservation,  and  exposing  the  weak 
illusion :  to  the  young  man :  "  Sell  all  thou  hast,  and 
give  to  the  poor."  Sometimes,  as  to  Matthew :  "  Believest 
thou  this  ?  "  When  the  leper  cried,  at  once,  "  Lord,  if 
thou  wilt,  thou  canst  make  me  clean,"  he  did  not  delay, 
but  put  forth  his  hand  and  healed  him.  When  the  cen 
turion  had  such  humility  as  to  decline  the  visit  of  the 
Lord  of  life  to  his  unworthy  roof,  he  exclaimed,  "  I  have 
not  found  so  great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel."  And  when 
the  Syrophenician  woman  came  pleading  for  her  lunatic 
daughter,  he  let  her  cry  long  aftei  him,  till  he  had  proved 
her  :  "  It  is  not  meet  to  take  the  children's  bread,  and  to 
cast  it  to  dogs."  Yet,  when  she  had  the  lowliness  and  the 
trust  to  say,  "  Yea,  Lord,  yet  the  dogs  under  the  table  eat 


THE   FAITH-FACULTY.  47 

of  the  crumbs  which  fall  from  their  master's  table,"  and 
showed  herself  content  even  with  the  cast-off  blessings 
of  a  more  favored  people,  he  spake  again  that  great  ben 
ediction,  "  Great  is  thy  faith,  be  it  unto  thee  even  as 
thou  wilt."  And  so,  forever  and  forever,  we  shall  be 
spiritually  enriched  just  as  much  as  we  are  willing  and 
ready  to  be.  They  that  love  much  are  forgiven  much  ; 
and  "the  things  of  the  Spirit  are  spiritually  discerned." 

We  can  apply  the  same  principle  to  seeking  for 
what  are  called  the  "  Evidences  for  Christianity."  As 
often  conducted,  that  study  is  chiefly  a  dry  exercise  of 
the  understanding.  It  is  all  very  well.  The  under 
standing's  own  difficulties  are  met ;  intellectual  objec 
tions  are  removed ;  the  sceptic's  allegations  are  logically 
answered,  perhaps,  and  the  Gospel  history  is  reconciled 
with  reason.  A  very  noble  enterprise,  on  the  out 
works.  Only  it  does  not  make  a  believer,  in  Christ's 
sense.  It  does  not  bring  the  interior  life  into  sympa 
thy  with  the  Saviour.  It  does  not  give  spiritual  dis 
cernment.  It  does  not  bring  us  to  live  joyfully  and 
affectionately  with  our  Lord. 

Faith  comes  another  way,  —  by  its  own  faculty.  It 
has  been  said,  by  a  bold  statement,  that  we  are  to  be 
lieve  Jesus  Christ  was  the  Son  of  God  because  he  said 
he  was.  It  sounds  credulous,  at  first.  And  it  is  not 
the  whole  of  the  truth.  But  there  is  a  profound  mean 
ing  in  it,  and  it  was  a  profound  thinker  that  said  it. 
We  are  to  believe  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God  because 
he  says  he  is ;  that  is,  because  such  a  person  as  he, 
with  his  character  and  nature,  with  all  that  we  at  once 
see  and  feel  him  to  be,  if  we  give  ourselves  up  to  a 
simple  impression  of  his  Divine  Goodness,  —  because 
he,  with  his  own  spirit,  his  love,  and  look,  and  tone, 


48  THE    FAITH-FACULTY. 

says  he  is.  There  is  an  evidence  of  Christianity ;  not 
an  argument,  but  an  apprehension ;  not  a  balancing  of 
affirmatives  and  negatives,  but  a  direct  sight.  Stand 
ing  before  him  on  the  mount,  sitting  at  his  feet,  look 
ing  up  at  him  on  the  cross,  we  believe.  Without 
reasoning  upon  it,  without  deduction,  or  premise,  or 
analysis,  we  consent.  We  use  those  steps  at  our  leis 
ure,  to  confirm,  or  to  settle  subsidiary  matters.  But 
by  faith,  we  say  it  is  so ;  it  is  borne  in  upon  us  as  ft 
conviction,  like  the  goodness  of  the  friend  we  love ;  and 
no  dialectics  will  make  it  more  true.  It  is  as  true 
as  it  can  be ;  and  you  are  just  as  likely,  more  likely, 
to  act  upon  such  a  conviction,  in  any  common  case, 
than  on  the  result  of  an  argumentative  process. 

Or,  take  up  any  of  the  Saviour's  great  sayings,  where 
principles  are  announced  so  broad  as  to  encompass  the 
whole  zone  of  duty,  —  truths  so  vast  as  to  link  heaven 
and  earth  together;  what  are  they  still  but  verbal 
sounds,  save  as  there  is  a  spiritual  discernment ?  "I 
am  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life," — that  unparalleled 
sentence,  of  more  moment  to  each  of  us  than  all  the 
wealth  and  all  the  knowledge  and  all  the  news  circu 
lating  through  all  the  civilization  and  societies  of  the 
world  ;  over  how  many  listless  ears  and  indifferent  minds 
it  will  pass  to-day,  as  fruitless  as  the  mourning  mother's 
repetition  of  the  familiar  name  to  the  daughter  that  was 
dead!  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all 
thy  heart":  —  what  is  it  to  us,  if  our  earnest  hearts 
within  us  are  not  asking  what  we  shall  do,  and  whom 
we  shall  love.  "  I  pray,  0  Father,  that  they  may  be 
one,  as  we  are": — is  there  any  logic  in  the  books, 
or  any  science  in  the  schools,  that  will  make  that 
prayer  clearer  to  your  soul,  or  that  will  abate,  one 


THE   FAITH-FACULTY.  49 

particle,  its  eternal  beauty  and  grandeur  when  the 
love  of  your  own  soul  has  really  prayed  it  once  ?  Take 
the  Beatitudes,  one  by  one.  And  as  their  immortal 
promises  fall  011  the  outward  sense,  —  mercy  for  the 
merciful,  comfort  for  them  that  mourn,  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  for  the  poor  in  spirit,  filial  places  for  the 
peacemakers,  celestial  fellowship  with  the  Prophets  for 
those  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake,  and  for  the 
pure  in  heart  the  beatific  vision  of  God,  —  what  does 
all  this  boundless  Beatus,  "  Blessed,"  signify,  except 
there  be  some  spiritual  discernment  to  catch  an  image 
of  the  joy  ?  To  the  sensual,  to  the  profane,  to  the  soul 
that  is  shut  upward  and  open  only  toward  the  earth, 
cold  in  devotion  and  eager  only  with  its  appetites,  or 
cased  in  that  intellectual  selfishness  that  shrinks  as  it 
freezes,  what  great  desire,  or  aspiration,  can  that 
"  Blessed  "  bring  ? 

It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  in  the  practical  direc 
tion  of  the  Christian  life,  in  the  various  applications 
of  Christian  truth  to  duties,  there  is  need  of  the  best 
intellectual  force.  Religion  is  constantly  calling  men 
tal  activity  to  her  service.  For  instance,  in  the  First 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  you  find  a  large  discussion 
of  questions  of  judgment,  —  questions,  rather,  of  con 
science,  primarily,  but  such  that  only  judgment,  reflec 
tion,  intellectual  powers,  can  rightly  settle  them.  They 
are  properly  matters  of  Christian  casuistry.  Christi 
anity  was  a  new  religion.  It  had  to  be  put  into  many 
old  practices,  social  relations,  civil  and  ecclesiastical  in 
stitutions.  These  involved  more  or  less  important  ques 
tions.  They  were  not  the  great  things  of  Revelation. 
Revelation  is  occupied  with  grand  original  truths,  com 
prehensive  facts,  immense  disclosures  of  a  world  of  un- 


50  THE   FAITH-FACULTY. 

seen  life.  So  it  can  plant  them  in  the  convictions  of 
men,  it  is  less  concerned  about  the  rest.  It  knows 
the  rest  will  come,  in  due  time,  by  the  working  of 
the  accepted  Spirit. 

Yet  naturally  the  minds  of  the  first  Christians  would 
be  greatly  exercised  on  the  practical  side  of  their  new 
religion,  getting  it  at  work  in  their  life,  into  contact  with 
their  habits  and  employments,  adjusted  to  their  former 
notions  and  outward  ordinances.  Faith,  in  itself,  is  an 
unchangeable  principle  ;  but  when  it  acts  by  human 
agents,  in  human  affairs,  its  operations  will  be  variable. 
Paul  would  help  these  first  Christians  in  that  matter. 
He  was  able.  He  had  their  confidence.  He  had  a 
strong  dialectic  power,  and  a  ripe  culture,  as  well  as 
spiritual  illumination.  So  he  taught  them,  about  cir 
cumcision,  about  tongues,  about  going  to  law,  about 
marriage,  and  feasts,  and  church  discipline,  —  all  with 
reference  to  a  fair  working  out  of  the  Christian  ideas. 
But  then  he  knew,  all  the  while,  these  were  not  the  great 
things  of  faith.  Those,  which  were  really  the  subjects 
of  his  inspiration,  were  stated  in  few  words.  It  was  in 
them,  after  all,  that  his  specialty,  as  an  apostle,  lay ;  and 
he  often  and  gladly  returned  to  them.  Whenever  he 
comes  to  them  it  is  with  veneration,  with  holy  feet. 
Then  he  says,  "  Spiritual  things  are  spiritually  dis 
cerned." 

It  is  a  great  hour  for  a  man,  when  he  wakes  up  to 
this  conviction  that  there  is  a  world  of  truth  which  he 
is  to  receive,  grow  familiar  with,  and  live  in,  otherwise 
than  through  his  mind,  or  his  bodily  senses.  It  is  a  new 
being.  It  is  his  regeneration.  The  term  is  not  too 
strong.  Christ  uses  it,  deliberately,  repeatedly.  For 
that  change  is  not  merely  the  addition  of  a  new  sense, 


THE   FAITH-FACULTY.  51 

on  a  level  with  Iris  other  senses.  It  is  a  wakening  to 
a  world  not  only  new,  but  one  which,  if  seen  to  exist 
at  all,  is  seen  to  be  of  supreme  beauty,  dignity,  bril 
liancy.  It  pours  another  atmosphere  over  all  the  things 
we  know  by  other  senses.  "  If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  — 
in  Christy  —  what  does  that  mean,  if  not  something  far 
more  than  a  mere  external  or  even  intellectual  presence, 
—  in  him  as  in  an  element,  an  air  of  life,  a  vital  and  in 
spiring  ether,  a  flood  of  light?  whosoever  is  thus  in 
Christ  "  is  a  new  creature.  Old  things  are  passed  away ; 
behold,  all  things  are  become  new."  Sin  is  hateful. 
Transgressions  are  repented  of  and  renounced.  There 
is  a  new  principle  of  living,  which  is  the  love  of  God. 
Wonderful  things  are  written  of  it,  by  them  that  know. 
It  makes  men  willing  to  suffer,  willing  to  die.  For 
"  every  one  that  loveth  is  born  of  God,"  and  cannot  really 
die.  "  His  seed  remaineth  in  him."  "  He  that  loveth 
not,  knoweth  not  God,  for  God  is  love ;  and  he  that 
loveth  dwelleth  in  God,  and  God  in  him."  "  And  here 
by  we  know  that  he  dwelleth  in  us,  by  the  spirit  which 
he  hath  given  us." 

All  this  is  but  the  waking  up,  quickening  into  active 
and  conscious  life,  of  a  germ  or  faculty  formed  in  us  by 
our  Maker ;  the  calling  up  of  a  vitality  which  sin  had 
deadened.  Doubtless  there  is  a  difference  in  degrees  of 
the  natural  endowment,  in  different  persons.  But  in 
every  man  it  exists,  and  in  every  man  there  is  enough 
to  make  a  Christian  of.  In  this  also,  it  follows  the 
analogy  of  the  other  faculties,  in  sane  and  common 
cases.  The  power  is  of  God ;  the  use  is  by  man. 

Nor  is  it  to  be  overlooked  that  for  the  training  of  this 
spiritual  power  there  is  an  appointed  tuition.  We  are 
sent  to  that  school.  The  "  selfsame  spirit "  that  is  the 


52  THE  FAITH-FACULTY. 

quiekener  and  teacher,  in  order  to  deal  naturally  with 
us,  and  give  regularity  to  the  spiritual  life,  will  have  a 
language,  rich  and  varied,  to  express  to  the  inward  sense 
the  invisible  things,  by  things  that  are  seen  and  heard. 
Images,  forms,  books,  rituals,  ministries,  become  symbols 
and  vehicles  of  the  hidden  reality.  These  are  never  to 
be  thrust  out  of  their  place  by  a  false  spiritualism ;  never 
to  be  thrust  into  the  place  of  the  Divine  substances  they 
body  forth  by  a  materialistic  superstition.  Then  they 
become  idols,  or  a  cant,  like  all  unreal  speech  and  cere 
mony  ;  but  in  themselves  they  are  the  beautiful  and  fit 
ting  language  to  us  of  what  we  are  by-and-by  to  see  face 
to  face,  and  know  as  we  are  known,  the  veil  taken  away. 
Indeed,  the  spiritual  world  is  so  much  greater  than 
this,  that  it  is  probable  all  outward  things  are  only  signs 
of  its  realities,  expressions  of  its  facts.  Yery  likely  there 
is  no  form  in  nature,  that  has  not  its  spiritual  counter 
part.  However  this  may  be,  we  know  that  we  have  a 
special  language  to  teach  us  spiritual  discernment.  "We 
have  forms  of  worship,  ordinances  of  consecration  and 
communion,  a  Bible.  Through  these  we  are  to  read, 
with  the  spirit  of  sincerity  for  our  lamp,  the  spiritual 
sense.  To  stop  with  the  form  or  letter  itself  is  like 
only  noticing  the  grammar  and  the  rhetoric  of  compo 
sition,  regardless  of  what  it  conveys.  We  spell  out  our 
heavenly  lesson  under  a  higher  and  holier  influence. 
God  makes  all  life  his  interpreter. 

"  The  Spirit  breathes  upon  the  Word, 
And  brings  the  truth  to  light." 

In  Judaism,  in  Christendom,  that  word  does  not  profit 
which  is  not  mixed  with  faith  in  them  that  hear  it. 
We  may  wonder  that  this  spiritual  light,  or  faith- 


THE   FAITH-FACULTY.  53 

faculty,  was  not  given  to  us  perfect  and  mature.  The 
knowledge  of  truth  and  of  heaven  is  a  good:  why 
should  not  a  God  of  goodness,  who  holds  this  very 
thing  supreme,  confer  it  on  us,  without  this  slow, 
stumbling  process  of  acquirement  ?  "Why  not  rend 
away  the  veil  at  once,  and  compel  us  to  believe  ? 

But  compulsory  belief  would  not  be  faith.  Besides, 
no  other  desirable  attainment  is  given  us  on  these 
terms,  —  no  knowledge  of  the  stars,  or  the  earth,  or 
coins,  or  shells,  or  plants.  And  by  going  down  a  little 
way,  we  find  a  part,  at  least,  of  the  reason.  In  the 
whole  Divine  Economy  of  Man,  we  see  the  enlarge 
ment  of  his  powers  reckoned  a  greater  good  than  the 
bare  increase  of  his  possessions.  The  wisdom  to  use, 
to  assimilate,  and  to  set  things  into  their  relations, 
is  more  than  the  owning  of  them.  It  is  no  unusual 
thing  to  see  a  man  surrounded  by  wealth  that  he  has 
got  together  by  one  kind  of  faculty  without  the  other 
faculty  which  can  turn  it  to  account  in  solid  help,  in 
true  beauty,  in  culture,  in  the  enriching  and  adorning 
of  his  own  manhood.  This  is  sometimes  called  success 
in  business ;  but  you  would  not  call  it  so.  So  it  is  not 
uncommon  to  see  a  man  who  has  piled  up  stores  of  in 
formation  in  his  memory,  but  is  as  helpless  as  before, 
for  want  of  the  faculty  that  transmutes  knowledge 
into  personal  force.  This  may  be  called  learning,  but 
not  by  learned  men.  In  each  case,  how  much  better 
would  a  power  of  another  sort  be,  —  more  mind  and 
less  money,  in  the  one,  —  more  wisdom  if  less  knowl 
edge,  in  the  other.  One  sits  there  in  his  furniture 
and  estates,  a  subaltern,  mortified  for  his  awkwardness, 
or  else  despised  because  he  is  not  mortified :  —  the 
other  carries  about  a  load  of  the  names  of  all  sub- 

5* 


54  THE   FAITH-FACULTY. 

stances  in  earth  and  air  at  his  tongue's  end,  yet  none 
the  less  at  the  mercy  of  all  the  hard  weather  of  life. 

So,  even  in  religion,  the  first  good  will  not  be  a  formal 
or  literal  acquaintance  with  the  objects.  They  must, 
as  it  were,  enter  into  us,  and  become  a  part  of  us. 
We  must  know  them  by  sympathy.  Like  must  be 
get  like,  in  the  appreciative  and  responsive  action  of 
our  own  nature.  Graciously  God  refuses  to  let  us 
have  spiritual  things,  save  by  the  steady  growth  and 
ripening  of  a  spiritual  mind.  In  fact,  otherwise  we 
should  not  really  have  them.  They  might  lie  about 
us,  like  the  items  of  a  miser's  property,  but  we  should 
never  own  them.  Possibly  they  might  rather  own  us, 
enslave  us  in  superstition,  or  some  bondage  to  the 
letter.  We  should  hold  them  only  nominally,  not 
really.  It  would  be  mortgage,  and  not  freehold.  Any 
mere  passing  of  glories  before  the  organs  of  sight  would 
be  a  spectacle  and  nothing  more,  —  the  flitting  images 
of  the  magic  lamp,  not  "  the  powers  of  the  world  to 
come." 

Hence,  by  a  law  that  cannot  be  broken,  spiritual 
knowledge  is  not  poured  irresistibly  into  the  mind. 
We  have  to  reach  out  for  it,  and  work  towards  it,  and 
strive  after  it,  and  little  by  little  get  the  feeling  of  it, 
along  with  the  sight  of  it.  It  is  for  our  own  sake.  It 
is  that  the  truth  may  really  be  ours,  of  us,  our  life 
and  not  our  furniture.  It  is  because  otherwise  it 
would  be  of  no  more  service  to  us  than  bank-notes  in 
the  fingers  of  an  infant,  or  a  steam-engine  in  the 
hands  of  a  savage.  This  is  what  Christ  doubt 
less  refers  to,  where,  speaking  of  an  extreme  case,  he 
tells  the  disciples  not  to  cast  their  pearls  before  swine. 
The  gross  nature  does  not  see  that  they  are  pearls. 


THE  FAITH-FACULTY.  55 

That  seen,  there  would  be  hope ;  and  the  patient  Christ 
would  wait,  and  labor,  and  invite  to  the  last ;  for  110 
Teacher  was  ever  so  encouraging.  Yet  there  must  be 
eyes  willing  to  see.  "  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let 
him  hear." 

The  instruction  and  the  encouragement  are  direct. 
Our  Christian  attainments  are  in  our  own  hands,  and 
yet  are  not  less,  for  that,  the  gift  and  grace  of  God's 
spirit.  Heaven  is  over  us,  and  open  to  us.  The  Gos 
pel  is  plain  to  the  eye  that  reads  in  faith.  All  the 
world  illustrates  this  Christian  lesson.  If  the  prac 
tised  astronomic  observer  can  see  a  star  in  the  sky, 
where  others  see  only  the  field  of  blue ;  if  the  worker 
in  mosaic  can  detect  distinctions  of  color  where  others 
see  none ;  if  the  Esquimaux  can  distinguish  a  white 
fox  in  the  snow ;  if  the  sailor  sees  the  ship  where  the 
landsman  sees  no  spot ;  —  if  thus,  to  a  measurable  keen 
ness  of  vision,  "  the  eye  sees  what  it  brings  the  power 
to  see,"  then,  much  more,  as  we  lift  up  the  eyes  of  the 
spirit,  in  prayer  and  trust  and  charity,  shall  we  behold 
the  invisible,  look  on  the  things  not  seen  and  eternal, 
and,  by  purity  of  heart,  "  see  God."  "  I  am  come,"  said 
Jesus,  "  that  they  which  see  not  might  see."  Then, 
as  in  the  higher  walks  of  science  the  illuminated 
mind  sometimes  transcends  the  ordinary  necessities  of 
language,  conquers  defect,  and  leaps  to  its  discoveries 
as  by  intuition,  or  translates  the  ideas  of  nature  by  a 
deeper  familiarity  with  her  signs,  so  it  will  be  here. 
Outward  things  cannot  destroy  nor  change  that  in 
terior  sight.  It  has  been  said  that  when  the  great 
English  anatomist,  Hunter,  died,  leaving  the  results 
of  his  life-long  observations  and  his  classification  in 
unpublished  manuscripts,  his  fraudulent  brother-in-law, 


56  THE  FAITH-FACULTY. 

aiming  to  appropriate  the  system  as  his  own,  burnt  the 
work  and  fancied  his  guilty  secret  safe.  But  the  scholar 
had  recorded  his  thoughts  in  another  volume.  When 
competent  naturalists  opened  his  museum  of  specimens, 
preserved  in  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  there,  on 
the  cases,  they  could  read  off,  in  the  exact  arrange 
ment  of  his  specimens,  as  clearly  as  in  words,  his 
whole  theory  of  the  animal  kingdom.  And  if  even 
the  intellect  rises  to  these  noble  freedoms  and  inde 
pendencies,  in  its  insight,  how  much  more  the  spirit, 
which,  because  it  dwelleth  in  Love,  is  born  of  God,  and 
dwelleth  in  God,  already,  and  forever. 

And  now,  if  this  line  of  thought  is  just,  you  will  not 
shrink  from  any  lawful  inferences  from  it ;  but  will 
thankfully  accept  them,  even  if  their  practical  applica 
tion  should  be  searching  to  the  conscience. 

1.  See,  then,  first,  that  the  waking  of  this  spiritual 
power,  in  any  individual  heart,  at  the  call  of  God's 
spirit,  into  a  conscious  and  voluntary  action,  is  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  life.  By  man's  creation, 
the  germ  of  it  was  provided,  and  that  was  all  nature 
did.  Even  what  nature  originally  supplied,  man  has 
perverted.  The  germ  was  bent  and  hurt  in  its  tender 
ness.  Not  only  the  individual  but  the  Race  has  per 
verted  it.  Hereditary  appetites  have  biased  it.  Bad 
passions  have  depraved  it.  God  comes  again,  in  Christ, 
to  heal  and  quicken.  For  that  act  the  New  Testament 
has  plain  names  :  "  being  born  again,"  "  renewal,"  "  re 
generation,"  "  conversion,"  "  believing  with  the  heart." 
It  stands  in  rational  analogy  with  all  our  living  ways. 
To  see,  to  feel,  to  begin  to  act,  in  the  Spirit,  —  this  is 
the  essential  of  Christian  discipleship,  of  the  immortal 
life,  on  earth,  in  heaven. 


THE  FAITH-FACULTY.  57 

2.  One  kind  of  exercise  does  not  bring  another  kind 
of  strength ;  one  kind  of  effort  another  kind  of  attain 
ment;  but  each  its  own.  Muscular  training  does  not 
furnish  the  mind,  but  the  body.  An  eager  acquisition 
of  money  does  not  refine  the  taste,  nor  liberalize  the 
disposition ;  it  only  sharpens  the  eye  to  the  main  chance. 
Political  ambition  does  not  foster  magnanimity,  but  cun 
ning  and  calculation.  So  in  every  department  of  action 
and  pursuit.  And,  by  the  same  law,  moral  endeavors 
will  produce  moral  vigor,  but  not  spiritual,  —  for  there 
is  a  difference.  Uprightness  in  trade  is  a  noble  trait ; 
it  is  worth  more  than  it  ever  costs ;  and  there  is  no 
Christian  character  without  it.  But  honesty  in  busi 
ness  is,  after  all,  a  distinct  thing  from  faith  in  God; 
there  is  not  a  village  in  Christendom  where  the  two 
are  not  found  in  separate  men.  Honesty  grows  by 
honest  dealing;  faith  grows  by  religious  worship  and 
experience.  Veracity  is  established  by  telling  the 
truth ;  but  a  spirit  of  prayer  is  awakened  by  going 
away  in  secret,  and  penitently,  humbly  conversing  with 
God.  The  blessed  submission  that  trusts  heaven  in 
every  trouble  and  bereavement,  —  by  the  bed  of  pain, 
in  loss  of  fortune,  in  the  desertion  of  friends,  at  the 
new-made  grave,  —  this  is  a  spiritual  grace,  one  of  the 
"  things  of  the  Spirit,"  and  it  is  no  more  to  be  gained 
by  mere  outward  correctness  of  behaviour,  or  a  com 
pliance  with  all  the  decent  rules  of  social  morality, 
than  fortitude  is  to  be  gained  by  frugality,  or  tender 
affections  by  a  stout  understanding.  An  inward  sense 
of  communion  with  Christ  is  a  spiritual  thing,  and, 
a  very  practicable  thing :  it  is  the  true  Christian's  pecu 
liar  privilege.  But  it  cannot  be  found  in  the  mere 
routine  of  an  honorable,  thrifty  traffic,  nor  in  the  ex- 


58  THE  FAITH-FACULTY. 

citements  of  society.  It  is  found  by  coming  to  Christ, 
believing  on  him,  thinking  of  him,  loving  him,  being 
grateful  to  him,  opening  to  him,  as  he  stands  at  the  door 
and  knocks.  The  inward  nature  is  made  of  organs  like 
the  outward.  Each  has  eyes  to  see  with,  and  hands 
to  lay  hold  by.  Christ  came  into  the  world  to  touch, 
restore,  vitalize  the  benumbed  and  dying  organs  of  the 
soul,  —  that  they  which  see  not  might  see ;  and  every 
power,  now  paralyzed  by  sin,  might  leap  back  to  life.  If 
we  would  have  this  matchless  and  miraculous  physician 
heal  us,  and  make  us  spiritual  beings,  fit  for  a  spiritual 
or  heavenly  society,  we  must  be  more  than  industrious, 
more  than  economical,  more  than  amiable  and  temper 
ate  and  respectable :  though  we  must  certainly  be  all 
these :  "  these  ought  ye  to  have  done,  and  not  to  leave 
the  other  undone."  We  must,  in  all  the  powers  of 
godliness,  in  devotion,  in  the  love  of  God,  in  faith 
and  hope  and  charity,  go  from  strength  to  strength,  — 
steadfast,  always  advancing,  always  abounding,  in  the 
work  of  the  Lord. 

3.  The  doctrine  will  remove,  if  .we  suffer  it,  many  of 
those  hinderances  to  our  setting  in  earnest  about  the 
Christian  life,  which  spring  from  a  mistaken  impression 
that  the  teachings  of  religion  must  first  be  encased  in 
the  formulas  of  reasoning,  or  seen  through  by  the  under 
standing,  instead  of  humbly  welcomed  by  faith.  That 
mistake  will  only  confuse,  darken,  and  cripple  the  soul. 
Each  power  God  hath  given  us,  to  its  own  place,  for 
its  own  office  !  Thus  only  can  we  gain  God's  blessing, 
or  do  his  will.  If  we  put  the  heart  where  the  brain 
belongs,  we  shall  be  children,  and  not  men,  in  under 
standing.  If  we  put  the  reason  where  faith  belongs, 
we  shall  fail  of  our  highest  glory,  miss  the  heavenly 


THE   FAITH-FACULTY.  59 

peace,  be  ungrateful  to  God  and  to  Christ,  and  stay 
ignorant  of  the  first  wisdom.  Of  the  pure  light  of 
Heaven,  gained  by  prayer  and  by  doing  the  will,  we 
can  never  have  too  much ;  but  by  trying  to  put  our 
own  tapers  instead  of  it,  we  destroy  the  very  temple 
we  were  exploring.  The  excess  of  candles  in  the  illu 
mination  of  the  Church  of  San  Spirito,  at  Florence, 
consumed  the  building.  So  our  pride  of  human  opinion 
quenches  that  Holy  Spirit  itself,  of  which  all  sanctuaries 
are  but  the  shrine.  "  Spiritual  things  are  spiritually 
discerned."  "  With  the  heart  man  believeth  unto  right 
eousness."  In  a  life  so  solemn  and  so  tempted  as  this, 
we  need  another  guide  than  reason.  The  cross  of  this 
intellectual  self-renunciation  will  ever  be  to  the  Jews 
a  stumbling-block,  and  to  the  Greeks  foolishness  ;  but 
to  them  which  believe,  the  power  of  God,  and  the  wis 
dom  of  God  unto  salvation. 

There  is  a  servile  deference  paid  even  by  Christians 
to  incompetent  judges  of  Christianity.  They  abjectly 
look  to  men  of  the  world,  to  scholars,  to  statesmen,  for 
testimonials  to  the  everlasting  and  self-evidencing  veri 
ties  of  heaven !  And  if  they  can  gather  up,  from  the 
writings  or  speeches  of  these  men,  some  patronizing 
notices  of  religion,  some  incidental  compliment  to  the 
civilizing  influence  of  Christianity,  or  to  the  literary 
beauties  of  the  Bible,  or  to  the  aesthetic  proprieties  of 
worship,  or  to  the  moral  sublimity  of  the  character  or 
Gospel  of  Christ,  they  forthwith  proclaim  these  tributes 
as  lending  some  great  confirmation  to  the  truth  of  God  ! 
So  we  persist  in  asking,  not  "Is  it  true  ?  true  to  our 
souls  ?  "  or,  "  Has  the  Lord  said  it  ?  "  but,  "  What  say 
the  learned  men,  the  influential  men,  the  eloquent  men  ? 
Have  any  of  the  rulers  or  of  the  Pharisees  believed 


60  THE  FAITH-FACULTY. 

on  him  ?  "  Shame  upon  these  time-serving  concessions, 
as  unmanly  as  they  are  fallacious.  Go  back  to  the 
hovels,  rather,  and  take  the  witnessing  of  the  illiterate 
souls  whose  hearts,  waiting  there  in  poverty,  or  pain,  or 
under  the  shadow  of  some  great  affliction,  the  Lord 
himself  hath  opened !  "  I  thank  thee,  0  Father,  Lord 
of  heaven  and  earth,  that  thou  hast  hid  these  things 
from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto 
babes ! " 

4.  As  the  faculty  of  faith  grows  and  strengthens  by 
its  own  holy  exercise,  so  it  is  lost  by  whatever  sensual 
izes  or  materializes  our  life.  While  the  spiritual  energy 
in  us  becomes  feeble,  the  world  around  us  will  grow  hurt 
ful  and  react  against  us.  Travellers  say  that  in  the 
countries  liable  to  earthquakes,  before  the  earthquake 
comes,  some  subtle  influence  in  the  air  weakens  the 
nervous  energy  of  the  human  system,  and,  by  abating 
the  power  of  resistance,  predisposes  the  mind  for  terror. 
It  is  the  same  cause  that  produces  the  evil  without  us 
and  within  us.  The  same  moral  disorder  infects  our 
powers  and  makes  nature  herself  our  enemy,  instead  of 
our  friend.  Each  separate  deed  we  do  bears  its  part. 
Every  gross  indulgence,  or  hour  of  selfish  vanity,  dims 
the  sight.  Darker  and  darker  every  day  the  chambers 
of  the  soul  become.  Weaker  and  weaker  the  energies 
for  all  noble,  heavenly  action.  Grosser  and  more  grov 
elling  the  desires.  Narrower  and  narrower  the  limits 
of  the  inmost  life.  Character  is  lost.  The  soul  dies, 
in  trespasses  and  transgressions,  —  the  second  death. 
This  is  the  fearful  retribution  :  not  always  executed 
speedily,  but  inevitably  :  not  arbitrarily  nor  angrily, 
but  because  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God  are  and 
must  be  spiritually  discerned. 


THE   FAITH-FACULTY.  61 

5.  Hence  we  are  responsible  not  only  for  what  we 
do  but  for  what  we  see.     More  than  we  often  think, 
these  eyes  of  the  soul  are  in  our  power.     Say  what  we 
will  of  the  obscurities  of  Revelation,  and  the  mysteries 
of  Providence,  truly  spiritual  and  believing  men  and 
women  go  on  reading  both,  deeper  and  deeper,  clearer 
and  clearer,  all  their  lives,  till  at  last,  no  longer  through 
a  glass  darkly,  —  the  veil  taken  away,  —  they  see  as  they 
are  seen,  know  as  they  are  known,  stand  face  to  face 
with  the  Saviour  they  have  so  long  and  so  trustingly 
followed,  and  have  "  open  vision  for  the  written  word." 
If  we  do  not  behold  the  constellation  of  splendid  truths 
that  radiate  their  evangelic  light  from  the  Gospel,  it 
is  because  blindness  is  in  the  dim  pupils  of  our  eyes, 
unused  or  abused.     Just  as  fast  as  we  will  let  it,  the 
day  will  dawn  and  the  day-star  arise  in  our  hearts. 
By  living  out  all  the  goodness  we  know,  in  the  daily 
beauty  of  holiness,  we  shall  behold  life's  grand  propor 
tions.     By  walking  with  Christ  you  shall  wear  his  like 
ness.      Nay,  —  for  he   is  a  living  Christ,  —  you   shall 
have   him  formed  within  you,  not  only  the  hope,  but 
the   present  possession,   of  glory.      And  because   you 
know  him  spiritually,  in  the  purity  and  love  of  his  life 
and  cross,  men  will  also  take  knowledge  of  you,  that 
you  have  been  with  him,  and  are  with  him  now,  and 
shall  be  his  people  forever. 

6.  Thus,  while  spiritual  discernment  is  a  power  by 
itself,  and  works  according  to  its  own  conditions,  and 
is  lost  or  deadened  by  its  own  wrongs,  its  results,  when 
it  is  rightly  and  generously  unfolded,  belong  to  the  whole 
breadth  of  character,  the  whole  range  and  beauty  and 
honor  of  human  life. 

When  the  faith-faculty  is  alive  and  at  its  principled 


62  THE   FAITH-FACULTY. 

work,  it  will  reach  out  in  its  supremacy  into  all  those 
other  parts  of  man,  and  all  the  real  interests  of  society, 
to  hallow,  guide,  and  bless  them.  It  will  not  stay  con 
fined  to  the  closet,  nor  the  sanctuary,  nor  the  Sabbath, 
nor  the  conference,  nor  the  chamber  of  the  heart, 
where  it  began,  and  where  it  still  gets  nourishment, 
but  it  will  mingle  itself  in  business  and  company,  in 
bargains  and  visitings,  in  the  merchant's  traffic,  and 
the  student's  books,  and  the  mechanic's  handicraft, 
and  the  farmer's  husbandry,  and  the  Christian  woman's 
housekeeping,  —  making  all  these  to  be  no  jmore  drudg 
ery,  but  cheerful,  dignified,  and  sacred  services  of  re 
ligious  love  and  joy. 

A  man's  religion  is  not  then  a  part  of  him,  but  is  a 
quality  of  the  whole  of  him.  Having  its  own  life-spring 
and  stream,  it  fertilizes  the  whole  field  of  his  being. 
It  makes  his  business  safer,  his  scholarship  wiser, 
his  manhood  manlier,  his  joy  healthier,  his  strength 
stronger.  It  is  the  crown  of  his  enterprise  and  the 
charm  of  his  affections,  the  humility  of  his  learning 
and  the  glory  of  his  life.  Faith  works  by  love.  And 
because  it  has  the  sight  of  things  not  seen  and  eter 
nal,  it  is  the  splendor,  the  transfiguration,  and  the 
sanctity  of  things  that  are  seen  and  temporal. 


SERMON    IV. 

THREE  DISPENSATIONS  IN  HISTORY  AND  IN  THE  SOUL. 

ABRAHAM  BELIEVED  GOD,  AND  IT  WAS  ACCOUNTED  TO  HIM 
FOR  RIGHTEOUSNESS.  THE  LAW  WAS  GIVEN  BY  MOSES  ;  BUT 
GRACE  AND  TRUTH  CAME  BY  JESUS  CHRIST. Gal.  ill.  6;  John 

i.  17. 

THE  spiritual  growth  of  mankind  has  proceeded 
through  three  great  stages.  Each  of  these  has  been 
marked  by  the  evolution  of  one  predominating  element, 
or  salient  principle  of  religious  action.  On  examina 
tion,  we  shall  be  able  to  discover  an  impressive  corre 
spondence  between  these  successive  epochs  in  the  his 
tory  of  humanity  at  large,  and  the  process  of  life  in  a 
well-disciplined,  Christianized  individual.  This  analogy 
is  so  thickly  set  with  points  of  interest,  as  well  as  so 
fruitful  of  practical  suggestions  touching  right  religious 
ideas,  and  right  living,  that  I  shall  let  it  fix  the  form, 
and  be  the  subject  of  the  discourse.  That  subject  is: 
The  threefold  discipline  of  our  spiritual  experience,  as 
compared  ivith  the  threefold  order  in  the  expanding 
nurture  of  the  human  family. 

The  three  Biblical  Dispensations  are  types  of  three 
great  principles  of  conduct,  or  rather  three  schools  of 
religious  culture,  under  which  we  must  pass  as  persons, 
just  as  the  race  has  passed  in  history,  before  we  can  be 


64  THREE  DISPENSATIONS. 

built  up  into  the  symmetrical  stature  of  a  Christian 
maturity. 

I.  First,  was  the  dispensation  of  natural  religious 
feeling.  The  race  was  in  childhood.  It  acted  from  im 
pulse.  It  obeyed  no  written  code  of  moral  regulations, 
but,  so  far  as  its  life  was  right,  it  either  followed  some 
free  religious  instincts,  or  else  depended  on  direct  inti 
mations  from  the  Deity,  directing  or  forbidding  each 
specific  deed.  The  man  chosen  as  the  representative  of 
this  period  was  Abraham.  The  record  of  it  is  the  book 
of  Genesis.  That  writing  is  the  first  grand  chapter  in 
the  biography  of  man ;  and  its  very  literary  structure  — 
so  dramatic  in  contents,  and  so  lyrical  in  expression,  so 
careless  in  the  rules  of  art,  so  abounding  in  personal  de 
tails  and  graphic  groupings  of  incident,  so  like  a  child's 
story  in  its  sublime  simplicity —  answers  to  the  spon 
taneous  period  it  pictures.  "  The  patriarchal  age  "  we 
call  it.  The  term  itself  intimates  rude,  unorganized 
politics ;  the  head  of  each  family  being  the  legislator  for 
his  tribe.  But,  in  the  absence  of  systematic  statutes, 
every  man,  by  a  liberty  so  large  as  to  burst  often  into 
license,  was  likely  to  do  very  much  what  was  right  in 
his  own  eyes.  If  he  had  strong  passions,  he  would  be  a 
sensualist,  like  Shechem,  or  a  petty  tyrant,  like  Laban. 
If  he  were  constitutionally  gentle,  he  would  be  an  in 
offensive  shepherd,  like  Lot.  Such  were  the  first  two 
brothers.  Cain's  jealousy  made  him  a  murderer ;  Abel 
was  peaceable,  kept  sheep,  and  the  only  voice  he  lifted 
up  against  outrage  was  when  his  blood  cried  from  the 
ground.  Some  of  these  nomadic  people,  having  devout 
temperaments,  "  called  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord,"  we 
are  told,  like  Enoch  and  Noah.  Others  were  bloated 
giants,  mighty  men  in  animal  propensities,  gross  and 


THREE   DISPENSATIONS.  65 

licentious,  given  to  promiscuous  marriages ;  so  that 
presently  God  saw  that  the  wickedness  was  so  great, 
and  the  imaginations  of  men's  hearts  were  so  evil,  that 
he  must  wash  the  unclean  earth  with  a  deluge.  But 
there  was  no  permanent  restraining  power ;  no  fixed 
standard  of  judicial  command ;  and  so,  when  the  flood 
dried,  the  tide  of  sin  set  in  again,  streaked  only  with 
some  veins  of  nobleness.  On  the  plains  of  Shinar  pride 
fancied  it  could  build  a  tower  that  should  overtop  the 
All-seeing  Providence ;  and  it  had  to  be  humbled  by  a 
confusion  of  tongues,  scattering  the  builders.  Even 
Noah,  a  just  man  for  his  times,  so  pure  in  that  com 
parison,  that  he  was  carried  over  on  the  waves  from  a 
drowned  generation,  to  install  a  new  one,  had  scarcely  seen 
the  many-colored  splendors  of  the  promise  in  the  rain 
bow,  before  he  was  drunken  of  overmuch  wine.  Abra 
ham  himself,  so  full  of  trust  that  his  trust  finally  saved  him, 
strong  enough  in  the  power  of  it  to  lay  his  son  on  an  altar, 
at  an  earlier  age  stained  his  tongue  with  a  cowardly 
falsehood,  calling  his  wife  his  sister  for  safety's  sake,  — 
first  pattern  of  the  politicians  of  mere  expediency,  —  and 
was  rebuked  for  it  by  Pharaoh,  who  had  seen  less  of  the 
heavenly  visions  than  he.  Sodom,  with  its  indescribable 
pollutions,  was  not  far  from  Beth-el, — house  of  God. 
Jacob  received  a  revelation  from  opened  heavens  ;  yet 
he  overreached  his  brother  to  appropriate  the  family 
blessing,  and  defrauded  his  father-in-law.  Throughout 
the  whole  of  this  patriarchal  era,  reaching  from  Adam 
to  Joseph,  and  covering,  by  the  common  computation, 
twenty-three  hundred  years,  there  were  beautiful  virtues 
flowering  into  the  light  by  the  spontaneous  energy  of 
nature,  but  poisoned  in  many  spots  by  the  slime  of  sen 
suality.  The  human  stock  threw  out  its  forms  of  life 

6* 


66  THREE  DISPENSATIONS. 

with  a  certain  negligence,  as  the  prodigal  force  of  nature 
does  her  forests  —  as  a  boy  swings  his  limbs  in  the  open 
air.  There  were  heroic  acts ;  but  they  were  dispersed 
over  intervals,  with  dismal  contrasts  of  meanness  and 
cowardice  between.  There  were  ardent  prayers  ;  but 
foul  passions  often  met  and  put  to  flight  the  descending 
hosts  of  the  angels  of  God.  Character  needed  a  stanch 
vertebral  column  to  secure  its  uprightness.  No  perma 
nent  sanction  lent  impregnability  to  good  impulses. 
Even  the  saint,  whose  spirit  rose  nearest  to  heaven, 
walked  on  the  verge  of  some  abyss  of  shame.  For 
though  Abraham  believed,  Moses  had  not  yet  legislated, 
nor  Christ  died. 

•  Corresponding,  now,  to  this  impulsive  religious  age  of 
the  race  is  the  natural  state  of  the  individual.  It  is 
the  condition  we  are  born  into,  and  multitudes  never 
pass  beyond  it,  because  they  are  never  renewed,  or  made 
Christian.  Morally  they  are  children  all  their  lives. 
Bad  dispositions  mix  with  good ;  one  moment  holy  aspi 
rations,  the  next  a  flagrant  immorality.  What  is  want 
ing  is  a  second  birth  of  spiritual  conviction.  Conduct 
is  not  brought  to  the  bar  of  a  governmental  examination, 
and  judged  by  an  unbending  principle.  Temptation  is 
too  much  for  this  feeble,  capricious  piety.  Nature,  true 
enough,  is  always  interesting ;  and  spontaneous  products 
may  be  beautiful.  But  man,  with  his  free  agency,  beset 
before  and  behind  by  evil,  is  not  like  a  lily  growing 
under  God's  sun  and  dew,  with  no  sin  to  deform  its 
grace  or  stain  its  coloring ;  he  is  not  like  the  innocent 
architecture  of  a  cloud,  shaped  by  the  fantastic  caprices 
of  the  summer  wind ;  nor  yet  like  the  aimless  statuary 
of  the  sea-shore,  sculptured  by  the  pliant  chisel  of  the 
wave.  He  has  to  contend,  struggle,  resist.  He  is  tried, 


THREE  DISPENSATIONS.  67 

enticed,  besieged.  Satan  creeps  anew  with  every  new 
born  child  into  the  Eden  of  the  heart,  and  flaming 
swords  are  presently  planted  on  its  gates,  proclaiming  — 
no  return  that  way  to  innocence.  The  natural  religion, 
of  which  modern  mystics  are  so  fond,  and  modern  peri 
patetics  prattle,  is  not  enough  for  him.  It  might  pos 
sibly  answer  in  the  woods,  unless  this  feeble  pantheism 
should  substitute  artistic  ecstasy  for  worship,  and  moon 
light  for  the  sun,  that  flashes  down  the  glories  of  reve 
lations  ;  or  in  some  solitary  cell,  though  even  there  monk 
and  hermit  have  often  found  the  snare  of  impure  imagi 
nations  spread  too  cunningly  for  it.  But  let  the  boy  go 
to  the  shop,  and  the  girl  to  school ;  let  the  young  man 
travel  to  the  city,  and  the  young  woman  lend  her  ears 
to  the  flatteries  of  that  silver-tongued  sorceress,  Society ; 
and  all  this  natural  piety  is  like  a  silken  thread  held 
over  a  blazing  furnace.  We  may  put  ourselves  at  ease, 
fancy  we  shall  fare  well  enough  under  so  kind  a  Father ; 
come  out  comfortably  at  last ;  there  is  such  tender  pity 
in  the  skies.  But  the  dispelling  of  that  delusion  will  be 
the  sharp  word  out  of  the  throne  of  judgment,  "  De 
part  from  me,  I  never  knew  you."  No  Babel  of  refuge 
will  be  built  to  the  top.  No  friendly  intervention  will 
avert  the  perdition  of  the  Sodom  in  the  heart.  No 
Tamar  of  custom  will  cajole  with  her  coquetry  the  an 
cient  and  everlasting  justice.  No  thrifty  leagiies  of  a 
low  commercial  instinct,  postponing  conscience  to  the 
arithmetic  of  traffic,  —  no  corrupt  political  majorities, 
subscribing  patriotic  manifestoes  as  stock  for  party  or 
private  dividends,  though  they  be  as  eleven  against  one, 
and  though  they  piously  profess  to  be  sons  of  Israel  by 
church  subscriptions,  —  shall  buy  national  prosperity  by 
their  brother  Joseph's  blood. 


68  THREE   DISPENSATIONS. 

There  is  often  a  vague  assumption  that  certain  prin 
ciples  of  natural  right,  evolved  and  compacted  by  ethical 
science,  might  save  our  social  state.  But,  remember 
that  society,  without  Christ,  in  its  philosophy,  its  litera 
ture,  its  art,  its  morals,  obeyed  a  law  of  deterioration  and 
decay.  Without  him,  it  would  have  been  sinking  still. 
Instead  of  the  Christian  justice  that  hangs  its  balances 
over  our  seats  of  lawful  trade  to-day,  we  should  have 
not  even  Punic  faith,  but  something  more  treacherous 
than  that  —  not  even  the  hesitating  Roman  honesty,  but 
a  zone  of  restraint  more  dissolute  than  the  Corinthian, 
and  principles  looser  than  the  Spartan's.  Instead  of  a 
respected  merchant,  or  steady  mechanic,  going  out  to  his 
business  to-morrow,  amid  a  public  order  that  Christ  has 
organized,  might  have  been  seen  a  barbarian  with  the 
concentrated  falsity  of  a  hundred  Arabs,  waking  into  a 
world  convulsed  with  perpetual  anarchy,  or  skulking 
away  to  transact  his  base  affairs  in  a  worse  than  Circas 
sian  mart.  We  may  baptize  the  interesting  displays  of 
our  intermittent  virtue  with  a  Christian  name ;  but  they 
may  yet  contain  no  quality  of  Christ's  peculiar  sanctity. 
They  may  leave  human  life  quite  untouched  by  that 
unrivalled  glory,  however  bright  their  transient  beam. 
They  are  not  redolent  of  the  New  Testament.  Their 
uprightness  does  not  bear  the  sanction  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount.  Their  slender  rectitude  is  not  tliQ  principle 
that  treats  men  justly  because  they  are  God's  children, 
which  was  the  law  of  Christ's  great  honesty.  Their 
kindness  is  not  the  sweet  charity  of  the  beatitudes. 
Their  moderation  is  not  guarded  by  those  majestic  war 
ders,  reverence  for  God,  and  a  Saviour's  love.  Nor  is 
their  worship,  if  they  adore  at  all,  fervent  with  the  pray 
ers  of  Olivet  and  Gethsemane. 


THREE   DISPENSATIONS.  69 

And  as  the  first  dispensation  ended  in  a  slavery  in 
Egypt,  or  broods  darkly  over  Pagan  nations  waiting  to  be 
brought  nigh  by  the  blood  of  Christ  to  this  hour,  so  the 
lawless  motions  of  every  self-guided  will  must  end  in  a 
servitude  to  some  Pharaoh  in  the  members  that  cries 
aloud  for  emancipation  —  a  settled  alienation  from  the 
household  of  the  good. 

II.  Next  after  this  impulsive  Or  spontaneous  period, 
which  is  the  period  of  Childhood,  comes  the  legal  or 
judicial,  —  a  second  stage  in  the  history  of  the  religious 
consciousness.  Moses,  the  lawgiver,  is  its  representa 
tive.  From  this  crisis,  the  chief  significance  of  the 
world's  religious  experience  is  concentrated,  for  some 
sixteen  hundred  years,  in  Juda3a,  and  human  progress 
runs  on  through  the  channel  of  Hebrew  nationality. 
Other  families  have  wandered  off  into  hopeless  idola 
tries.  The  religion  of  instinct  has  found  its  appro 
priate  termination  in  a  degraded  Egyptian  priesthood, 
mixing  civil  despotism  with  the  incantations  of  an  im 
pure  mythology. 

And  now,  God  calls  up  Moses  out  of  this  miserable 
oppression  into  the  summit  of  Sinai,  and  appoints  him 
the  head  of  the  second  august  human  epoch.  A  period 
of  laws,  after  instinct,  begins.  Instinct  must  be  curbed, 
for  it  has  done  mischief  enough.  Impulse  must  be  sub 
jected  to  principle,  for  it  has  proved  itself  insufficient 
alone.  There  must  be  positive  command,  controlling 
wayward  inclinations.  "  Thou  shalt,"  and  "  Thou  shalt 
not,"  are  the  watchwords.  It  is  an  age  of  obedience. 
Ceremonies  and  ordinances  are  set  up  to  bring  the  wild 
will  under  discipline.  And  the  better  to  secure  exact 
obedience,  a  visible  system  of  formal  observances  is  an 
nounced,  —  so  many  sacrifices  every  day,  and  so  many 


erj  sacrifice.  To  withstand  the  surrounding  seduc- 
of  nations  still  steeped  in  the  vices  of  their  natural 
nsities,  a  scheme  of  cuaciie  restraints  comes  in. 
people  must  hare  multiplied  festivals,  jubilees, 
natknal  gatherings,  regularly  kept,  and  by  Divine  ap 
pointment.  To  drair  them,  there  is  a  gorgeous  temple 
with  an  imposing  altar,  a  tabernacle,  a  covenant,  a  shek- 
inah  lighted  from  heaven,  a  priesthood  clad  in  splendid 
garments,  and  an  the  superb  apparatus  of  a  magnificent 
ritoaL  Even  the  dafly  habits,  materials  of  common 
dress,  qualities  of  food  and  kinds  of  flesh,  are  all  to  be 
regulated  in  detail  by  specific  statutes.  Law  reaches 
down  to  determine  the  most  minute  particulars,  —  the 
cleansing  of  houses,  the  shape  of  the  beard,  the  sowing 
of  the  field,  —  all  having  reference  to  neighboring  idol 
atrous  usages,  of  which  these  twelve  tribes  must,  by  all 
jmrnnn,  be  kept  clear.  And  for  the  breach  of  every  law, 
from  greatest  to  least,  there  must  be  penalty.  That  part 
of  human  nature  that  terror  and  dread  appeal  to  is  ad- 
dressed.  On  the  transgraaior  woe  is  denounced.  There 
is  a  Mount  Ebal,  full  of  menacing  curses,  as  well  as  a 
Gerizim  pledged  to  blessings.  Smoke,  earthquakes, 
thunders  and  lightnings,  marshalling  their  awful  pageant 
about  .Sinai  when  the  law  was  given,  only  prefigured 
punishments  that  should  always  torment  the  disobedient. 
And,  accordingly,  down  through  all  the  Hebrew  for- 
.  while  prophets  were  set  to  admonish  and  call 
back  the  rebellions,  the  great  staple  of  Israelitish  history 
wa«,  the  Divine  chastisement  that  followed  violations  of 
law,  and  the  prosperity  that  rewarded  its  observance. 
Sieges  and  campaigns,  conquests  and  captivities,  judges 
and  kin^-i,  Joshua,  Gideon,  and  Ezra,  David,  Saul, 


7:2  THBEE  DISPENSATIONS. 

vision  of  time  for  business  is  only  a  form  of  law,  coerc 
ing  industry  and  efficiency.  Many  a  man  has  to  spur  his 
sluggishness  by  definite  tasks ;  and  many  more  would 
bring  nothing  to  pass,  but  for  fixed  methods  and  seasons. 
"Without  a  morning  and  evening  sacrifice,  forgetful 
world!  in  ess  would  render  poor  service  to  God ;  and 
memories,  like  Martha,  so  careful  and  troubled  about 
many  things,  would  fail  of  Mary's  one  thing  needful. 
The  laying  apart  of  exact  sums  for  charity  has  been  all 
that  stood  between  some  men  and  the  doom  of  avarice ; 
benevolence  had  to  be  put  out  to  school,  and  philan 
thropy  be  drilled  into  promptitude  like  a  cadet.  Let  us 
not  despise  law,  for  every  day  practical  proofs  are  scat 
tered  before  us,  that  it  is  a  schoolmaster  to  lead  us  to 
Christ. 

Even  fear,  though  fastidious  nerves  are  apt  to  discredit 
it  as  a  lower  sentiment,  has  its  office  in  disciplining 
thoughtless  and  stubborn  wills,  breaking  down  pride  and 
prompting  insensibility,  till  it  is  ready  to  hand  us  over 
to  motives  of  a  nobler  order.  There  is  a  meaning  in  a 
tradition  of  an  ancient  German  prince,  who,  in  early 
life,  was  bidden  by  an  oracle  to  search  out  an  inscription 
on  a  ruined  wall  which  should  prefigure  his  mortal  fate. 
He  found  the  Latin  words,  signifying  after  six.  Sup 
posing  they  revealed  the  number  of  days  he  was  to  live, 
he  gave  himself  for  the  six  days  following  to  his  hitherto 
neglected  soul,  preparing  himself  to  die.  But  finding 
death  did  not  come,  he  was  still  held  to  his  sober  resolu 
tions  by  supposing  six  weeks  were  the  interpretation ; 
and  then  he  prolonged  his  holy  life  to  six  months,  and 
six  years.  On  the  first  day  of  the  seventh  year,  by  rea 
son  of  the  excellent  manhood  into  which  he  had  thus 
formed  his  character,  he  had  gained  the  confidence  of 


THREE   DISPENSATIONS.  16 

the  people,  and  he  found  the  fulfilment  of  the  ambiguous 
prophecy  by  being  chosen  Emperor  of  Germany.  Here 
is  a  figure  of  common  experience.  We  may  conceive  it 
to  have  been  a  more  "  spiritual "  process,  that  the  prince 
should  have  been  drawn  to  piety,  by  loving  goodness  for  its 
own  sake.  But  it  was  the  timid  dread  of  dying  that  drew 
him,  and  the  royal  benefactions  of  a  truly  Christian  mon 
arch  justified  the  agent.  Christian  biography  is  crowded 
with  instances  of  first  awakenings  by  fear.  It  is  remark 
able  that  Luther,  whose  great  soul,  illumined  afterwards 
by  the  text,  u  The  just  shall  live  by  faith,"  became  the 
modern  apostle  of  the  doctrine  of  Grace  as  opposed  to 
justification  by  legality,  was  first  aroused  from  utter  in 
difference  by  two  terrors,  the  violent  death  of  his  friend 
Alexis,  and  the  thunderbolt  that  struck  close  by  him  on 
his  way  from  Mansfeldt  to  the  University.  Have  you 
never  known  a  fever,  or  an  accident,  or  the  incipient 
symptoms  of  a  consumption  to  be  the  determining  cause 
that  bent  the  whole  current  of  a  life  from  earthward  to 
heavenward  ?  Have  you  never  known  that  a  mere 
dread  of  punishment  or  pain,  of  hell  or  disgrace,  has 
stopped  the  erring  feet  of  lust,  silenced  profanity,  driven 
back  the  Sabbath-breaker  ?  God  is  not  ashamed  to  take 
into  the  sublime  economy  of  his  purposes  these  stim 
ulants  to  virtue  ;  and  let  not  us,  in  our  puerile  conceit, 
venture  to  pronounce  them  unworthy.  Outgrow  them 
if  you  will,  and  can ;  but  take  care  that  you  are  not 
found,  after  all,  below,  instead  of  above  the  plane  of 
their  influence. 

For  be  assured,  though  we  have  read  the  Xew  Testa 
ment,  named  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  quite  looked  down 
on  the  Jew,  some  of  us  have  not  yet  climbed  up  so  far 
as  to  Moses  and  his  Jewish  law.  In  the  Bible's  older 

7 


74  THREE   DISPENSATIONS. 

Testament  there  are  needed  examples  for  us  yet.  Not 
all  of  us  have  learned  that  majestic,  unchangeable  fact, 
that  God  is  Sovereign ;  nor  those  related  facts  that,  if 
we  will  perpetrate  the  wrong,  we  must  suffer  the  penalty  ; 
that  we  cannot  dodge  the  consequences  of  what  we  do ; 
that  indolence  must  sap  our  strength ;  that  selfishness 
must  end  in  wretchedness ;  that  falsehood  is  a  mint 
coining  counterfeits  that  must  return  upon  our  hands ; 
that  hypocrisy  to-day  is  disgrace  to-morrow.  This  is 
law,  everlasting,  unrepealable  law;  and  our  poor  at 
tempts  to  resist  or  nullify  it,  avail  not  so  much  as  a  puff 
of  mortal  breath  against  the  gulf  stream  in  the  Atlantic. 
Blessed  will  it  be  for  our  peace,  when  we  accept  it,  and 
bow  to  it,  turning  it  into  a  law  of  liberty. 

Remember  that  the  grandest  examples  of  sainthood, 
or  spiritual  life,  that  the  ages  have  seen,  have  been  souls 
that  recognized  this  truth,  —  the  firm,  Puritanical  ele 
ment  in  all  valiant  piety ;  and  without  it  mere  amiable 
religious  feeling  will  be  quite  sure  to  degenerate  into 
sentimentality.  "We  need  to  stand  compassed  about 
with  the  terrible  splendors  of  the  Mount,  and  with  some 
thing  of  the  sombre  apparatus  of  Hebrew  command 
ments,  to  keep  us  from  falling  off  into  some  impious, 
Gentile  idolatries  of  the  senses.  Holy  places,  and  holy 
days,  and  solemn  assemblies,  still  dispense  sanctity.  Our 
appetites  have  to  be  hedged  about  with  almost  as  many 
scruples  of  regimen  for  Christian  moderation's  sake,  as 
the  Jew's  for  his  monotheism.  "  We  wish,"  says  some 
one,  "  that  it  was  not  so  difficult  to  be  good.  We  wish 
that  we  could  be  self-indulgent,  and  yet  be  good  for  all 
that ;  that  we  could  idle  off  our  time,  and  yet  be  wise 
for  all  that."  The  worldling  wishes  he  could  combine 
his  worldliness  now  with  a  heaven  hereafter  ;  the  volup- 


THREE   DISPENSATIONS.  75 

tuary,  that  lie  could  have  "  the  clear  eye  and  steady 
hand  of  the  temperate  "  ;  the  vain,  ambitious,  capricious 
woman,  that  she  could  exhibit  the  serenity  that  comes 
of  prayer.  But  Sinai  stands  unmoved,  at  the  outset  of 
every  life-journey  through  the  wilderness ;  and  at  the 
further  end,  beyond  the  river,  Ebal  with  its  curses,  and 
Gerizim  with  its  blessings.  "  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth, 
that  shall  he  also  reap." 

III.  But  there  is  a  Third  Dispensation,  profounder 
and  richer  than  that  of  statutes ;  and,  at  the  head  of  it, 
One  greater  than  Moses.  The  period  of  literal  com 
mandments  was  insufficient ;  humanity  outgrew  it.  It 
became  a  dead  profession,  a  school  of  foolish  questions, 
a  shelter  of  hideous  hypocrisies.  Lo!  the  enlarging 
soul  of  the  race  asks  a  freer,  more  sincere,  more  vital 
nurture,  and  it  comes.  If  the  simple  religious  instincts 
of  Abraham  had  been  accepted  for  righteousness ;  if  the 
law  had  been  given  by  Mos'es  ;  grace  and  truth  enter  in 
by  Jesus  Christ ;  grace  for  the  heart,  truth  for  the  un 
derstanding  ;  favor  for  man's  stumbling  feet,  and  light 
for  his  eyes.  Christ  does  not  abrogate  law,  but  by  his 
own  life  and  sacrifice  first  satisfies  its  conditions.  He 
says  expressly,  "  Think  not  that  I  came  to  destroy  Moses, 
but  to  fulfil."  The  cross  does  not  unbind  the  cords  of 
accountability,  but  tightens  and  strengthens  them  rather. 
The  Gospel  aifords  no  solvent  to  disintegrate  the  com 
mandments  ;  it  only  lets  "  the  violated  law  speak  out  its 
thunders"  in  the  tones  of  pity.  Divine  laws  never 
looked  so  sacred  as  when  they  took  sanctity  from  the 
redemption  of  the  crucified. 

Witness  now  a  new  light,  "  lighting  every  man  that 
cometh  into  the  world."  It  is  the  deliverance  of  the 
heart.  It  is  the  purifying  of  the  life.  It  is  the  sancti- 


76  THREE   DISPENSATIONS, 

fication  of  the  spirit.  The  law,  by  which  no  man  living 
can  be  justified,  because  no  man  ever  yet  kept  it  in 
violate  ;  which  makes  no  allowance  for  imperfect  obe 
dience,  and  yet  never  was  perfectly  obeyed,  —  which, 
therefore,  is  a  rule  of  universal  condemnation  when 
standing  alone, — this  stern,  unrelenting  law  gives  place 
to  a  Gospel,  —  gladder  tidings,  —  a  voice  that  comes  not 
to  condemn  but  to  save  ;  a  ministry  of  mercy,  asking 
only  a  penitent  spirit  that  it  may  offer  forgiveness,  and 
only  an  inward  faith  changing  the  motives  that  it  may 
confer  eternal  life. 

Law  and  prophets,  then,  are  not  annulled ;  what  they 
lacked  is  siipplied.  They  are  absorbed  by  Evangelists. 
The  Gospel  takes  up  all  their  contents,  recasts  them,  and 
quickens  them  with  the  vitality  of  a  fresh  inspiration. 
Moses  remains,  but  only  as  a  servant  to  Christ.  The  dec 
alogue  still  stands  ;  but  the  cross  stands  on  a  higher  ped 
estal,  invested  with  a  purer  glory.  Humble  Calvary  is 
the  seat  of  a  loftier  power  than  towering  Horeb.  We 
must  still  be  under  discipline ;  but  the  lawgiver  is  lost 
in  the  Redeemer.  What  was  a  task  is  transfigured  into 
a  choice.  The  drudgery  of  obedience  is  beautified  into 
the  privilege  of  reconciliation.  Love  has  cast  out  fear. 
Man  no  longer  cowers  before  his  Sovereign  with  terror, 
but  pours  out  his  praises  to  a  Father.  The  soul  is  re 
leased  from  the  bondage  of  a  thrall  into  the  liberty  of 
a  child.  Out  of  the  plodding  routine  of  mechanical 
sacrifice  it  ascends  into  spiritual  joy,  where  the  hand 
writing  of  ordinances  is  done  away ;  the  Great  High 
Priest  has  ascended  once  for  all  into  the  heavens,  and 
suffering  is  willingly  borne  because  it  makes  the  disciple 
like  the  Lord. 

Thus  the  word  spoken  by  the  third  epoch  of  religious 


THREE   DISPENSATIONS.  77 

culture  is  not,  "  Act  thy  nature  out  and.  follow  thy  law 
less  impulses," — nor  yet,  "Do  this  circle  of  outward 
works,  and  then  come  and  claim  salvation  for  thy 
merits," — but,  believe,  first,  and  then  out  of  thy  faith 
do  the  righteous  works  which  thou  then  canst  not  but 
do.  Repent  of  thy  short  comings,  and  be  forgiven. 
Lean  on  Christ,  thy  Saviour.  Love  God,  thy  Father. 
Help  men,  thy  brethren.  And  come,  inherit  thine  im 
mortal  kingdom ! 

Now,  at  last,  if  it  only  keeps  on  in  the  path  divinely 
marked  for  it,  the  soul  emerges  into  that  wide  fellowship 
of  Christ,  —  that  open  hospitality  of  spiritual  freedom, 
where  the  impulse  of  nature  is  only  guided,  not  stifled, 
by  law;  where  law  is  ripened  and  fulfilled  into  faith. 
The  highest  victory  of  goodness  is  union  with  God. 
That  union  conies  only  by  a  mediator.  For  recon 
ciliation  between  finite  and  infinite,  there  must  be  a 
Reconciler  combining  both.  The  way  to  peace  lies  by 
Calvary.  Humanity  realizes  its  complete  proportions 
only  by  inward  membership  with  him  who  fills  all  the 
veins  of  his  living  body  with  his  blood,  and  the  chambers  of 
his  church  with  the  glory  of  his  presence  to-day.  "  Be 
lieve  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved." 

For,  observe,  by  all  means,  this  striking  condition  per 
taining  to  the  doctrine ;  that  neither  of  these  three 
stages,  whether  of  the  general  or  the  personal  progress, 
denies,  or  cuts  off,  its  predecessor.  Nature  prepares  the 
way  for  law,  —  making  the  heart  restless,  by  an  unsatis 
fying  experiment,  without  it.  Abraham  saw  more  glori 
ous  ages  coming  than  his  own,  and  the  promise  given  to 
him  and  his  seed,  Emmanuel  accomplished.  The  law 
disciplined  wayward,  uncultured  man,  making  him 
ready  for  the  church  that  was  to  descend  "like  a 

7* 


:.-.    -•?. 

-    -  ".  _ 


.- 


to  that  mWime 
wfacrc  I  diafl  ifeiw-c  to  do  only 
i mi  •  ii  liTii,  liil  ' 


- 


80  THREE   DISPENSATIONS. 

places  ;  not  by  a  religion  kindling  at  some  favored  hour 
of  sentimental  meditation,  only  to  sink  and  flicker  in 
the  drudgery  of  common  work.  It  is  to  little  purpose 
ili;ii  wo  read  and  circulate  and  preach  the  Bible,  ex 
cept  nil  our  reading  and  all  our  living  gain  thereby  a 
more  biblical  tone.  And  it  is  quite  futile  that  "bur 
breasts  glow  with  some  fugitive  feeling  in  the  house  of 
God,  unless  that  feeling  dedicates  our  common  dwell- 

lo  be  all  houses  of  God. 

So  have  you  seen  the  religious  legalist.  In  business, 
in  the  streets,  in  sanctuaries,  at  homo,  you  have  seen 
him.  In  business,  measuring  off  his  righteousness  by 
some  sealed  measure  of  public  usage,  as  mechanically 
as  bis  merchandise,  and  making  a  label  or  a  dye-stuff 
his  cunning  proxy  to  tell  tho  lio  that  some  judicial 
penalty  had  frightened  from  his  tongue ;  disowning  no 
patent  obligation,  but  cheating  tho  customer,  or  oppress 
ing  tho  weak,  in  secret.  In  tho  street,  wearing  an  out 
side  of  genial  manners,  with  a  frosty  temper  under  it, 
<u  M  cloak  of  propriety  with  a  heart  of  sin ;  in  the  sanc 
tuary,  purchasing,  with  formal  professions,  one  day,  the 
pn\  ilcgo  of  an  untroubled  self-seeking  the  other  six,  or 
possibly  opening  the  pew  door  and  the  prayer-book  hero 
to-day,  with  the  same  hand  that  will  wrong  a  neighbor 
to-morrow  ;  and,  at  home,  practising  that  reluctant  vir- 
tuo  that  would  hardly  give  conjugal  affection  but  for  the 
marriage-bond,  and  that,  by  being  exported  to  another 
continent,  would  find  a  Parisian  atmosphere  a  solvent 
of  all  its  scruples.  Not  descending,  at  present,  to  the 
depth  of  depravity,  he  certainly  never  rises  to  a  pure 
piety.  Whatever  respectable  or  admirable  traits  you  see 
in  him,  you  miss  that  distinctive  mark  which  every  eye 
takes  knowledge  of  is  a  spiritual  consecration. 


Si 


Kngroft,,  now*  on  that  *  wild  olix^  Stock  the  $ 
jniecs  of  Christian  lov\\  drawn  from  their  original 
in  Bethlehem,  uof  the  sx>ed  of  I>avid,  and  the  wot 
of  Jesse  w  ;  soften  thai  hard  integrity  by  Christian 
charity  ;  in  pta<ft>  *£  duty  dwi^  ftvnu  shwr 
duty  dww  flrwn  a  viliii^  ^1^^  and 
IV>  Ihi**  wut  thou  «lwnU 
Chrbl  : 


*  Calvwry  :  lhi»  is  thai  divino  wr\lw»  —  iu>l  K>uud 
ri^tid  rulw  of  elirtwofa^ttil  ^«K\\\^U>IU  hut, 
ft\v  |4ay  and  vajriou^  infKMrsliadin^  <Mf  a 
—  ito  which  \^i>  an>  h>  conform  our 
Ihc  «  T^it*  jwiVA  M«  lortf^  shall  hav\> 
our  impatient  wUU  our  hearts  xrill  l\o  rvati\r  to 
s^v%  **  Our  Father,  vrho  art  m  heaven  !  ^  ISeek,  ftr^t^ 
after  that  indwollitig  gootiiue^  that  has  its  fountain  in 
tlie  centre  of  the  s$nl>  and  good  works  will  he  th« 
constant  streanu  Be  children  of  light.  Live  hy  the, 
spirit  not  the  letter  :  hy  failh>  not  hy  fear*  For  yoxi 
aw  calKnt  to  l^e  disciples  of  Jesus,  Henceforth  the 
Christian  is  to  he  known,  and  to  he  saved,  not,  hy  the 
hand  so  much  as  hy  the  heart  ;  not  by  a  righteous 
ness  that  is  legal,  hut  spiritual*  Let  not  yonr  piety 
he  the  occasional  piety  of  Kahhinical  Sahhaths*  with 
ghastly  intenuls  of  worKllincss  Ivfwxvn,  lib^  isolaknl 
springs  in  a  desort  of  sajiid  :  Imt  a  piety,  xrhos^  pe 
rennial  influence,  like  the  river  that  keep*  the  meadows 
always  green,  shall  ^netrate  and  fertilise  the  whole 
soil  and  open  field  of  y\mr  Iving,  and  thus  mite 
glad  the  city  of  yonr  CK*L  No  rich,  nor  tamtilVtl,  nor 
accepted  life  can  he  lived  by  ws  except  Christ  bfc  its 
inspiration.  Hope  will  not*  rach  np  to  immortality, 


82  THREE  DISPENSATIONS. 

except  it  climb  by  the  cross.  Let  not  your  lives  be 
dead  shapes  of  outward  decency,  —  the  carved  and 
gilded  wood  of  an  ark  and  a  tabernacle  deserted  by 
the  Spirit,  —  but  vital  branches,  filled  with  leaping  and 
vigorous  currents  of  holy  feeling,  on  the  living  vine ! 
"  For  if  any  man  have  not  the  spirit  of  Christ,  he  is 
none  of  his." 


SERMON    V. 

THE  FEELING  AND   CRY  OF  SIN.* 

GOD   BE   MERCIFUL    TO   ME   A   SINNER  !  —  Luke  Xviii.  13. 

BY  contrast  with  the  arrogant  and  egotistical  boast 
of  the  Pharisee,  and  on  the  score  of  its  natural  modesty, 
this  prayer  of  the  Publican  wins  the  respect  of  all 
classes  of  people.  But  to  enter  into  the  anxious  and 
burdened  feeling  out  of  which  such  a  cry  of  sorrow 
'  must  have  sprung,  and  to  make  that  feeling  our  own, 
is  not  so  much  a  matter  of  course.  This  requires  some 
thing  of  those  more  earnest  exercises  of  the  interior 
life,  and  that  deeper  discipline,  which  involve  the  very 
presence  and  power  of  the  renewing  Spirit. 

This  man,  standing  here  before  God,  afar  off  from 
his  fellow-men,  the  very  image  of  depression,  not  so 
much  as  his  eyes  lifted,  pronounces  himself  a  sinner. 
And  this  expression  of  conscious  unworthiness  is  not 
made  as  a  piece  of  information  to  heaven  or  earth.  It 
is  simply  the  irrepressible  confession  of  sincerity,  pressed 
out  of  the  soul  by  a  longing  for  forgiveness ;  —  short, 
because  so  terribly  sincere.  The  straitened  spirit  in  its 
anguish  has  no  room  for  prolix  particulars.  The  very 
sound  of  the  words,  the  downcast  look,  the  withdrawn 

*  Preached  at  the  beginning  of  Lent,  1859. 


84  THE   FEELING   AND   CRY   OF   SIN. 

> 

position,  the  agonized  gesture,  as  well  as  the  character 
Christ  puts  upon  these  things,  betray  the  reality  of  his 
repentance.  The  thing  they  expose  to  us  is  human 
sin,  —  its  self-conviction,  its  wretchedness,  its  way  of 
relief.  It  is  with  this  'disease  of  the  moral  nature  as  it 
is  with  some  sorts  of  physical  disorder ;  the  sight  of  it 
is  repulsive  and  forbidding,  till  the  malady  is  acknowl 
edged  in  our  own  body.  Then  for  the  first  time,  when 
the  pain  throbs  along  our  nerves,  we  are  willing  to 
contemplate  it  without  impatience.  It  is  a  spectacle  of 
ugliness  and  humiliation,  from  which  men  are  eager  to 
turn  away  their  eyes,  till  they  feel  its  hurt  and  peril 
pressing  into  the  organs  of  their  own  frames.  The 
prosperous  and  self-satisfied  and  unawakened  say,  Why 
talk  to  us  of  sin  ? 

One  reason  why,  is  that  it  is  a  fact  pervading  the 
world.  Another  is,  that  it  is  the  greatest  of  evils,  and 
the  malignant  source  of  all  evils  that  exist,  being  the 
sting  of  death  itself.  Another,  that  it  is,  or  will  be, 
incomparably  the  greatest  of  miseries,  a  misery  that 
only  a  knowledge  and  a  feeling  of  sin  like  the  publican's 
can  prevent.  Still  another  reason  is,  that  Christ  and 
his  religion  continually  refer  to  it,  having  it  for  their 
express  object  to  take  man  out  from  its  control  and 
give  him  the  mastery  over  it.  So  that  it  has  come 
about,  as  the  divine  order  for  us,  taken  as  we  are,  that 
a  quickened  individual  conviction  of  sin  is  the  first  step 
in  passing  into  a  new  and  Christian  life. 

An  individual  conviction.  After  all,  what  probably 
goes  far  to  make  all  human  discoursing  about  sin  both 
unwelcome  and  ineffectual,  is  that  so*  much  of  it  is  a 
rebuke  of  man  by  man  rather  than  the  humble  confession 
of  a  common  wrong.  We  must  acknowledge,  also,  that 


THE   FEELING  AND   CRY  OF  SIN.  85 

in  our  public  and  formal  treatment  of  it,  we  are  apt  to 
fall  into  cool,  customary,  unfelt  language.  That  is, 
there  is  too  much  of  the  Pharisaic  method  in  our  judg 
ment  and  speech  about  the  world's  depravity  ;  too  much 
vagueness,  and  verbal  repetition,  and  tacit  complacency ; 
not  enough  of  the  sadness  and  sincere  solemnity  of  the 
publican.  Let  us  at  least  try  to  feel  what  we  say,  and 
put  ourselves  in  with  those  that  we  rebuke,  not  to 
make  out  a  bad  case  against  mankind,  but  to  help  each 
other  into  God's  way  of  delivering  us  from  the  bad  case 
we  are  actually  in.  Observe,  in  all  his  intercourse  with 
men,  Christ  displayed  the  utmost  tenderness  to  those 
who  had  found  out  that  they  were  sinners,  —  all  that 
ran  and  knelt  to  him  in  penitence.  His  woes  and 
threatenings  and  judgments  were  for  those  that  were 
sinners  without  confessing  it. 

The  sinning  man  is  here  presented  to  us  as  having 
given  personal  offence  to  his  Maker.  He  implores  for 
giveness  of  the  Father  he  has  offended.  All  our  evil, 
in  act,  or  word,  or  wish,  or  thought,  is  a  direct  wrong 
against  the  God  of  all  goodness  and  purity,  himself. 
When  we  offend,  it  is  not  merely  ourselves,  not  merely 
other  men,  not  merely  public  opinion  and  social  conven 
tions,  that  we  offend.  Ah,  this  notion  that  there  is  no 
other  iniquity  for  man  than  a  transgression  of  the  natu 
ral  laws  of  his  own  constitution,  and  that  no  hurt  is 
inflicted  biit  on  his  own  or  some  human  sensibility,  is 
not  at  all  the  doctrine  of  Christ  or  of  the  Bible.  There 
is  grief  with  God  himself.  A  wound  is  given  to  the 
infinite  and  loving  heart.  A  jar  is  sent  not  only  through 
the  air  of  this  world,  and  across  the  chords  of  humanity, 
but  up  to  the  ear  of  heaven  and  into  the  Spirit  of  pa 
rental  tenderness  on  high.  Man  is  responsible  to  some- 


86  THE   FEELING   AND    CRY   OF   SIN. 

thing  beyond  his  own  organization.  Remorse  is  not 
merely  the  after-thought  of  a  mistaken  self-interest, 
the  reconsideration  of  a  hasty  policy.  Doubtless  the 
wrong  is  double,  and  the  suffering  is  on  both  sides. 
"  He  that  sinneth  against  me  wrongeth  his  own  soul." 
But  mark  the  first  clause,  — "  Sinneth  against  me." 
As  the  blessing  of  truth  is  alike  to  heaven  and  earth, 
giving  health  and  light,  so  are  the  curse  and  the  pain 
of  sin  felt  all  along  the  immortal  and  sympathetic 
ranks  of  being.  As  godliness  is  profitable  both  to 
the  life  that  now  is  and  the  life  that  is  to  come,  so  is 
wickedness  a  blight  and  a  sorrow.  And  of  both  of 
these  lives,  and  of  all  the  worlds,  God  is  a  judge 
who  must  be  just,  and  a  ruler  who  must  uphold  the 
right,  as  well  as  a  feeling  Father  who  sorrows  and 
pities.  Those  who  have  the  dimmest  sense  of  God  have 
the  dullest  perception  of  what  is  opposite  to  God.  Pan 
theism  knows  nothing  of  sin.  As  prayer  is  something 
more  than  a  placid  meditation  on  the  beauty  of  the 
world  or  a  gallery  of  art,  Christian  faith  something 
more  than  confidence  in  our  own  powers  to  accom 
plish  what  we  undertake,  and  religion  something  more 
than  the  tranquil  balance  of  cultivated  faculties,  so  is 
sin  a  personal  affront,  whose  bitter  consequences  only 
the  forgiveness  of  God  himself  can  remove,  and  toward 
which,  with  the  publican,  we  must  implore  him  to  be 
merciful.  It  does  not  read,  "  Nature  be  merciful," 
nor  "  Laws  of  my  constitution  be  merciful,"  nor  "  So 
ciety  be  merciful,"  nor,  "  I  will  be  merciful  to  myself," 
but,  "  GOD  be  merciful ;  "  — nor  yet,  "  God  be  merciful 
to  sin  in  general,"  but  "  to  me  a  sinner." 

Men  of  the  ripest  attainments,  deepest  experience, 
and  clearest  insight   in  the  Christian  life,  have  been 


THE   FEELING   AND   CRY   OF   SIN.  87 

those  who  have  gone  through  this  sharp  conflict;  not 
men  of  easy  views  of  the  Divine  requirements  ;  not  men 
too  fastidious  to  accept  the  stringent  action  of  God's 
law ;  not  men  disposed  to  palliate  their  own  faults,  or 
to  narrow  down  or  reason  away  the  irreconcilable  oppo 
sition  between  a  principle  of  self-seeking  and  the  prin 
ciple  of  holy  obedience.  Indeed,  in  proportion  as  the 
religious  character  grows  positive  and  fervent,  the  soul 
grows  sensitive ;  and  while  charity  for  others  is  larger 
and  kindlier,  for  the  very  reason  that  the  heart  has 
so  heavy  a  record  to  return  of  its  own  weaknesses 
and  errors,  at  the  same  time  a  strict  personal  doctrine 
of  sin  seems  more  reasonable  and  right;  for  sin  itself 
is  only  more  and  more  dreadful.  Conscience,  stricken 
with  shame,  confesses  to  the  reproof;  while  the  soul, 
rising  in  aspiration,  and  gathering  itself  into  closer 
communion  with  the  purity  of  the  heart  of  Christ,  re 
pudiates  with  intenser  disgust  every  unhallowed  in 
clination. 

We  may  contrive  many  plausible  coverings  and  apol 
ogies  ;  for  the  sophistry  of  sin  is  as  old  as  its  pride. 
We  may  maintain  that  we  are  no  worse  than  our  neigh 
bors.  One  man  extenuates  his  guilt ;  another  denies  it 
altogether,  and  counts  the  charge  of  it  an  insult,  not 
remembering  who  brings  the  charge  with  most  searching 
severity  and  with  the  most  fearful  authority.  We  may 
admit  the  offence,  but  plead  the  violence  of  the  temp 
tation,  the  treacherous  opportunity,  the  customs  of 
society,  the  necessities  of  business.  The  first  man  that 
sinned  cried,  "  The  woman  tempted  me,  and  I  did  eat," 
and  the  tens  of  thousands  of  his  descendants  who  sinned 
yesterday  protested  that  they  did  not  sin  willingly  ;  they 
only  did  not  see  how  they  should  "get  along  in  the 


88  THE   FEELING  AND   CRY  OF  SIN* 

world  "  without  doing  as  they  did.  But  whoso  world  ? 
and  "  get  along  "  towards  what  ?  Or,  we  sometimes 
think  it  quite  hard  that  an  amiable  disposition,  popular 
manners,  punctual  payments,  and  an  occasional  alms 
giving,  are  not  suffered  to  stand  for  our  excusing,  if  our 
Father  in  Heaven  is  forgotten  or  profaned.  Yet  all 
the  while  we  know  these  to  be  poor,  pitiful  pretences, 
which  never  wholly  satisfy  the  minds  that  make  them. 
Deeper  down,  in  some  spot  of  your  nature  which  the 
gracious  Spirit  has  not  yet  permitted  to  be  hardened  and 
perverted  utterly,  is  there  not  another  verdict,  rendered 
at  another  plea  ?  a  voice  that  is  ready  sometimes  to  cry, 
"  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner  "  ? 

So  profoundly  rooted  is  this  religious  instinct,  —  the 
feeling  that  any  thorough  and  effectual  religious  life 
must  be  born  through  the  pains  of  penitence,  —  that 
you  will  probably  have  heard  some  persons  deploring 
their  feeble  sense  of  sin.  They  say  they  are  not  pierced, 
or  borne  down,  as  they  know  they  ought  to  be,  with  a 
keen  and  overwhelming  conviction  of  their  alienation 
and  transgression.  This  is  one  of  the  common  and 
most  sincere  confessions  in  the  beginnings  of  religious 
concern.  Men  under  moral  conviction  at  once  lament 
that  they  are  insensible  to  their  bad  state,  and  yet  show 
a  lively  sense  of  it  in  this  very  regret.  They  grieve 
because  their  grief  is  so  small,  and  their  condition  con 
tradicts  itself.  It  seems  like  a  tangled  knot  in  the  mind. 
Is  not  the  true  explanation  of  it  simply  that  there  is  a 
conflict,  or  an  inequality,  between  the  moral  judgment 
and  the  spiritual  emotions  ?  Conscience  pronounces  it 
our  duty  to  realize  and  acknowledge  our  ingratitude  and 
disobedience ;  it  says  ought.  But  habit  has  made  the 
heart  dead.  The  feelings  do  not  come  up  properly  to 


THE   PEELING   AND    CRY   OF   SIN.  89 

their  part  of  the  work.  An  apathy  is  on  the  soul ;  le- 
galism  holds  her  in  its  bondage  ;  and  till  the  subduing 
sight  of  the  cross  unseals  the  fountains  of  holy  emotion, 
there  is  only  self-accusation,  but  no  peace.  Repentance 
has  stung  the  conscience,  but  has  not  reached,  renewed, 
and  comforted  the  heart. 

The  three  scriptural  words  that  are  most  frequently 
employed  to  express  the  special  effect  of  Christianity 
all  convey  the  meaning  that  the  soul  is  somehow,  in 
every  case,  if  left  to  itself,  out  of  its  right  line  of  life,  on 
a  wrong  course,  looking  the  wrong  way.  These  are 
Redemption,  Salvation,  Reconciliation.  Redemption  ; 
but  why  redeemed,  except  the  soul  has  involved  itself 
so  helplessly  in  a  false  state,  that  this  divine  force  must 
be  interposed  for  its  rescue  ?  Salvation ;  but  saved 
from  what,  if  not  from  a  peril  and  a  misery  incurred  by 
a  wicked  will,  and  escaped  only  by  the  new  principle  of 
faith  that  comes  of  Christ  ?  Reconciliation ;  but  why 
reconciled,  except  there  has  been  alienation  ;  and  where 
the  Father  of  goodness  on  the  one  side  and  his  child  on 
the  other  are  estranged,  where  is  it  possible  the  occasion 
of  alienation  should  be  but  in  some  perversity  of  the 
child  ?  In  the  same  way,  the  words  conversion,  renew 
al,  regeneration,  repentance,  words  made  familiar  as 
the  household  speech  of  the  church,  unless  we  utterly 
discharge  them  of  all  honest  meaning,  impress  it  upon 
us  that  every  one  of  us  is  out  of  his  innocent  subjection 
to  God's  will,  —  sinning. 

The  whole  machinery  of  heathen  worship  has  been 
a  device  for  ending  man's  controversy  with  his  Ma 
ker.  Under  Christianity,  the  same  idea  only  takes  a 
more  refined  shape  and  a  higher  sanction.  The  heart 
comes  to  Christ  because  it  carries  its  burden  of  sin  to 

8* 


90  THE   FEELING   AND    CRY   OF   STN*. 

every  other   system,  philosophy,  and   teacher,  only  to 
bring-  it  back  heavier  and  more  galling  than  before. 

The  world  over,  in  its  serious  hours  the  heart  longs, 
sighs,  groans,  and  travails  with  sorrows  that  cannot  be 
uttered,  to  be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  sin  and 
death.  The  Scripture  has  no  other  doctrine  of  the 
matter,  on  any  of  its  pages ;  and  scarcely  one  page 
where  this  is  not.  Read  the  burning  confessions  of  the 
fifty-first  Psalm,  and  of  many  another  before  and  after  it, 
where  the  fire  of  remorse,  which  is  only  the  lurid  re 
flection  of  sin,  almost  visibly  scorches  the  Psalmist's 
heart ;  read  the  terrible  descriptions  of  that  state  of  man 
without  his  Redeemer  written  by  Paul  to  the  Romans ; 
or  the  tragic  picture  of  Paul's  own  fearful  struggles 
with  the  law  of  his  members  ;  or  the  awful  prophecies 
of  a  society  forgetting  its  Lord,  given  in  Jude.  Re 
call  the  narratives  of  depravity  in  Scripture  history,  and 
the  denunciations  upon  it  by  prophets,  and  the  thrilling 
exhortations  against  it  by  apostles.  Remember  that 
the  Bible  begins  with  the  first  inroad  of  sin,  and  finishes 
with  warnings  of  its  punishments.  Above  all,  remember 
that  the  first  word  of  the  new  dispensation  was  4;  Re 
pent,"  and  its  consummation  was  the  cross  built  on 
Calvary  to  assure  forgiveness  to  "  repentance  toward 
God  and  faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  "  and  you 
will  hardly  need  to  multiply  these  convincing  tokens 
that  all  the  ministrations  of  our  religion  to  the  human 
soul  presuppose  that  we  all  have  sinned,  are  sinners 
still.  If  any  of  you  are  disposed  to  complain  that  there 
is  too  much  preaching  against  sin,  apply  your  criticism 
to  the  Bible.  The  Christ  whom  we  preach  came  to  be 
a  Saviour  from  sin,  did  he  not  ?  How  much  better  to 
think  and  feel  thoroughly  what  sin  is  now,  than  when 


THE   FEELING   AXD    CEY   OF    SIX.  91 

the  i:  space  for  repentance  "  is  exchanged  for  the  deter 
minations  of  the  judgment ! 

Suppose,  then,  any  one  of  us  to  be  conscious  that 
he  ought  to  hare  a  more  living  sense  of  his  evils, 
assured  that  by  that  way  only  can  he  hope  to  come 
to  a  strong  and  pure  religious  character,  how  is  that 
penitential  frame  to  be  produced  ? 

It  must  be  by  setting  up  a  contrast :  a  contrast  either 
between  our  own  character  and  the  character  of  God, 
or  between  our  character  as  it  is,  and  as  it  should  be 
under  the  perfect  Christian  rule  of  duty  and  the  in 
spiration  of  Christian  faith. 

To  the  character  of  God  as  expressed  to  us  primarily 
in  revelation,  and  less  directly  in  nature  and  history, 
we  ascribe  the  perfection  of  holiness.  But  this  sentence 
is  only  a  repetition  of  words ;  and  what  we  want  is  to 
get  beyond  this  stale  formality.  TTe  are  to  quicken 
in  ourselves  the  true,  right  feeling  of  the  publican,  by 
reviving  and  strengthening,  in  every  possible  way.  the 
impression  of  our  Father's  goodness.  Could  we  only 
once  break  through  this  deadening  influence  of  regu 
larity,  where  the  very  love  of  God  is  hidden  in  its 
own  constancy ;  could  we  see  and  feel  that  we  are 
indeed  utterly,  and  always,  and  afresh  every  instant, 
at  our  Maker's  disposal  and  dependent  on  his  will, — 
every  fibre  of  the  body  kept  in  place  by  his  care,  and 
every  breath  inspired  by  him,  and  the  whole  spirit  sub 
ject  and  amenable  to  him ;  could  we  then  begin  to  con 
sider  his  patience  and  recount  his  gifts,  —  his  patience 
with  us  from  the  cradle,  and  with  the  race  from  Eden, 
—  his  gifts,  as  many  as  the  organs,  inlets,  faculties, 
tissues,  powers,  of  all  our  complex  being  multiplied 
by  all  the  seconds  of  our  life  ;  could  we  then  rise  from 


92 


THE   FEELING   AND   CRY   OF   SIN. 


this  to  some  worthy  conception  of  his  own  Infinite  Life,  — 
boundless,  fathomless,  endless,  yet  all  intensest  life,  — 
the  majesty,  the  might,  the  dominion,  —  the  purity,  the 
pity,  the  wisdom,  the  love ;  —  God  forbearing  with  all 
this  impious  and  disgusting  folly,  God  enduring  all  this 
abhorrent  selfishness,  God  upholding  all  these  unprofit 
able  and  unthankful  creatures,  if  so  be  that  possibly 
something  may  yet  be  recovered  of  their  self-destruc 
tion,  and  the  well-beloved  Son  dying  for  that ;  —  and 
could  we  at  last  put  in  contrast  with  Him  our  lives, 
so  mean,  so  weak,  so  bad,  —  then  should  we  not  be 
ready  to  exclaim,  with  something  more  than  a  mere 
recitation  of  the  memory,  "  Lord !  what  is  man  that 
thou  art  mindful  of  him  ?  God  be  merciful  to  me  a 
sinner !  " 

Turn  to  the  Scriptures.  Another  line  of  contrast  is 
presented  in  the  express  standard  of  character  set  be 
fore  us  there.  You  take  any  of  those  great  summa 
ries  of  obligation,  which  are  gathered  up  here  and 
there  in  the  Scriptures  like  waymarks  to  the  genera 
tions, —  easiest  for  the  mind  to  hold,  and  oftenest  re 
peated  :  let  it  be  the  ten  Hebrew  commands,  interpreting 
them  not  only  in  the  letter  but  the  spirit,  from  that 
first  and  awful  one,— its  rigor  not  superannuated  by 
three  thousand  years,  its  vitality  not  outlawed  because 
we  have  moved  from  the  neighborhood  of  the  Canaan- 
ites  and  our  heathenism  has  changed  its  name  and  its 
garments,  —  which  declares,  "  Thou  shalt  have  no  other 
gods  before  me,"  —  prohibiting  all  our  idols,  self,  friends, 
family,  fame,  property,  —  down  to  that  last  of  the  ten, 
which  cuts  so  closely  into  our  daily  and  hidden  habits 
when  it  says,  "  Thou  shalt  not  covet  anything'  that  is 
thy  neighbor's."  Or  let  it  be  the  preacher's  short  but 


THE  FEELING  AND   CRY  OP  SIN.  93 

difficult  compendium,  —  "  the  conclusion  of  the  whole 
matter,"  —  "Fear  God,  and  keep  his  commandments, 
for  this  is  the  whole  duty  of  man."  Or  let  it  be  the 
prophet's  persuasive  generalization,  putting  it  as  so  rea 
sonable,  but  still  keeping  it  so  far  beyond  us,  —  "  What 
doth  the  Lord  thy  God  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly, 
love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  "  ?  Or  observe 
the  wonderful  blending  of  simplicity  and  power  in  the  Be 
atitudes,  pausing  to  think  on  what  hearts,  and  what  only, 
each  "  blessing  "  can  descend.  Or  let  it  be  the  Saviour's 
double  precept,  more  unattainable  than  all,  "Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neigh 
bor  as  thyself."  Or  listen  to  that  grand  and  stirring 
roll-call  of  the  disciple's  duties  in  Paul's  twelfth  chapter 
to  the  Romans.  Or,  finally,  ponder  that  plain,  brief 
definition  of  the  practical  James  :  "  Pure  religion,  before 
God  and  the  Father,  is  this,  to  visit  the  fatherless  and 
the  widows  in  their  affliction,  and  to  keep  himself  un 
spotted  from  the  world  !  "  —  weighing  well  the  meas 
ure  of  that  Christian  cleanliness  demanded  in  the  latter 
clause,  —  "to  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the  world." 
Let  any  of  these  or  all  of  them  be  the  statutes  of  the  law 
and  the  will  of  your  God.  Remember  all  are  without 
abatement,  without  exception,  without  qualifying  clause, 
or  proviso,  or  partiality,  or  respect  of  persons,  the  unre- 
pealable  command  of  the  righteous  Ruler  of  all  ages  and 
all  worlds,  —  not  to  be  evaded,  because  he  is  Omniscient, 
and  not  to  be  broken,  because  the  good  of  all  would  then 
be  betrayed.  And  then,  having  these  for  the  rule 
and  requirement,  let  us  lay  them  down,  syllable  after 
syllable,  side  by  side,  with  our  outer  and  inner  life 
for  a  week,  or  a  day,  —  and  behold  the  contradiction. 


94  THE   FEELING   AND   CRY   OF   SIN. 

Place  them  beside  the  spiritual  indifference  and  the 
moral  obliquities ;  the  earth-bound  attachments  and  the 
broken  resolutions  ;  the  obstinate  self-will  and  the 
swerving  aspirations ;  the  irritable  temper  and  the 
inflated  vanity ;  the  cunning  calculations  of  self-ad 
vancement  and  the  impulsive  fires  of  passion.  Watch 
the  conversation  of  a  single  company,  —  its  direct  or 
insinuated  slander,  its  envious  or  conceited  judgments, 
its  delight  in  censure  and  in  the  discovery  of  weakness, 
ill-disguised  by  moral  protestations,  —  its  enormous  pre 
ponderance  of  blame,  its  excesses  of  supply  to  admi 
ration  or  to  appetite.  Consider  what  a  thing  actual 
full-toned  justice  would  be  in  the  transactions  and 
speech  of  society  ;  what  a  Christ-like  mercy  would  do  ; 
and  how  the  splendor  of  an  absolutely  spotless  soul 
would  shine  among  us.  Think  what  it  must  be  to  love 
God  with  all  the  heart,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  him. 
Reflect  how  full  the  world  is  of  those  precautions,  safe 
guards,  defences,  which  argue,  from  experience,  a  con 
stant  expectation  that  men  will  do  wrong,  overreach  and 
deceive,  if  they  can.  Let  all  this  work  of  individual  com 
parison  be  done  honestly,  fearlessly,  faithfully,  and  with 
a  prayer  that  even  He  who  seeth  in  secret  may  be  satis 
fied.  And  surely  the  argument  will  come  to  an  end. 
It  will  break  into  the  publican's  prayer,  "  God  be  merci 
ful  to  me  a  sinner !  " 

But  let  us  not  fail  to  take  one  step  more.  The  actual 
impression  of  human  sin  which  the  Scriptures  give,  which 
the  Saviour  himself  in  this  passage  and  elsewhere  gives, 
is  not  made  by  specifying  particular  detailed  acts  of 
wrong,  but  by  referring  to  the  one  great  pervading  sin 
of  an  unbelieving,  unrepenting,  unconsecrated  heart. 
This  is  the  fatal  thing,  —  the  depravity  that  is  unto 


THE   FEELING   AND    CRY   OF   SIN.  95 

death.  You  notice,  —  and  it  seems  to  me  a  very  striking 
fact,  —  that  while  the  Pharisee  enumerates  his  merits, 
what  he  thinks  his  positive  and  negative  virtues,  his 
abstinences  and  proprieties  and  almsgivings,  the  Publi 
can  does  not  pretend  to  enumerate  his  offences.  Now, 
goodness  that  can  be  measured  and  counted  off  is  not 
enough.  Goodness  is  a  principle,  and  that  is  measure 
less.  Christ  would  show  this  publican  as  knowing  that 
down  underneath  all  particular  sins  there  lies  the  one 
worse  sin  of  a  wrong  soul,  from  which  all  the  little  ones 
spring  and  take  their  energy  of  mischief,  —  the  parent-sin 
of  Satanic  self-love  that  brings  the  whole  vile  progeny 
forth.  It  is  not  so  much  sins  as  sin  that  we  have  to 
confess  and  deplore.  Some  acts  of  evil  will  ever  remain 
to  be  renounced.  But  the  state  of  sin,  nothing  but 
a  Christian  renewal  or  a  regeneration  from  the  Spirit  of 
God  in  the  cross  of  Christ  will  change  that.  A  mere 
indifference  to  the  right,  a  mere  imfilial  forgetfulness  of 
God,  the  mere  coldness  of  disregard  to  Christ's  com 
passion,  makes  up  that  godless  condition.  The  Fath 
er  asks  a  filial  spirit  in  his  child ;  the  Saviour  asks  a 
disciple's  affection.  We  cannot  veil  that  deep  gulf 
which  stretches  always  between  him  that  serveth  God 
and  him  that  serveth  him  not  with  any  brilliant  mist 
of  kindly  instincts  or  graceful  accomplishments.  This 
is  life  eternal,  —  to  know  thec  and  thy  Christ !  "  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  God." 

My  friends,  we  all  shrink  from  the  Pharisaic  reputa-^ 
tion.  Yet  this  must  be  true ;  —  that  if  any  of  us  are 
not  penitent  with  the  publican,  the  prodigal,  the  woman 
at  the  Redeemer's  feet;  if  any  of  us  are  going  on  with 
habitual  self-satisfaction,  with  no  burning  uneasiness, 
no  bitter  accusations,  no  sad  shame  within ;  if  the  days 


96  THE   FEELING   AND   CRY   OF  SIN. 

pass  over  us  and  bring  no  feeling  with  them  that  we 
are  far  from  where  we  ought  to  be  and  might  be,  and 
far  from  what  our  Saviour  has  come  to  make  us  to  be ; 
if  we  have  not  frequent  hours  of  sorrowful  self-scrutiny  ; 
no  solitary  struggles  with  ourselves,  and  none  of  that 
secret  pleading  on  our .  knees  for  forgiveness  which  is 
the  only  way  any  holy  soul  ever  found  to  the  kingdom 
of  God,  —  we  may  be  sure  that,  though  we  should  lack 
the  effrontery  to  stand  up  and  repeat  the  very  inso 
lence  of  the  Pharisee,  yet  we  are  with  him  in  spirit, 
and  shall  go  down  to  our  houses  to-day  no  more  justified 
than  he. 

Finally,  recall  the  truth,  written  in  those  common 
expectations  of  mankind  which  Paul  well  describes  as 
a  "certain  fearful  looking  for  of  judgment"  almost  as 
clearly  as  in  the  volume  of  the  Book,  —  that  an  irre 
sistible  power,  mightier  than  any  of  our  passions,  and 
penetrating  below  our  delusions,  will  dispel  every 
mistake,  bring  all  that  is  dark  to  light,  and  make  every 
soul  stand  face  to  face  with  its  sins.  What  wisdom 
in  us  to  anticipate  these  disclosures  and  their  retribu 
tion  !  How  reasonable  that,  seizing  on  all  helps  to 
wards  reckoning  the  departures  of  our  transgression, 
we  should  see  what  is  the  sin  that  most  easily  besets 
us! 

No  generalities  here  can  adequately  unveil  our  pri 
vate  hearts.  Pursue  this  salutary  search,  therefore,  in 
the  secrecy  of  your  several  retirements.  Dismiss  all 
concealments ;  we  may  well  dismiss  them  before  the 
God  who  sees  beneath  them.  Reject  those  too  nattering 
constructions  which  pride  and  self-excuse  are  always 
so  ready  to  suggest,  to  quiet  the  disturbances  of  con 
science.  Give  penitence  free  way,  for  it  cleanses  while 


THE  FEELING  AND  CEY  OF  SIN.  97 

it  burns.  Rebuke  the  whisper  that  says,  "  Soul,  take 
thine  ease,  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry."  Plunge  down 
into  the  darkest  corners,  —  not  only  among  sins  of  the 
tongue  and  the  street,  of  society  and  business,  of  the  house 
and  the  hand,  of  the  market  and  the  Church,  but  among 
sins  of  forbidden  desires,  of  subtle  indulgence,  of  the 
temper  and  the  imagination,  —  sins  that  ally  them 
selves,  if  they  can,  with  noble  impulses  and  warm  affec 
tions,  with  the  intellect  and  with  honor.  This  will  be 
a  worthy  sacrifice,  an  acceptable  lenten  service,  —  such 
a  fast  as  God  hath  chosen.  And  it  will  be  a  new  wonder, 
if,  at  the  end  of  that  solemn  scrutiny,  we  do  not  all  im 
plore,  with  no  need  of  exhortation  from  each  other, 
"  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner ! " 

In  the  Castle  of  Despair,  Christian  found  the  key  of 
promise  in  his  bosom.  And  this  is  the  promise :  "  If 
we  confess  our  sins,  He  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive 
us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteous 
ness."  "  Who  hath  delivered  us  from  the  power  of 
darkness,  and  hath  translated  us  into  the  kingdom  of 
his  dear  Son,  in  whom  we  have  redemption  through 
his  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sins." 


SERMON    VI. 

THE  ECONOMY  OF  EENEWAL. 

ARISE  YE,  AND  DEPART  ;  FOR  THIS  IS  NOT  YOUR  REST.  —  Micah  ii.  10. 

THERE  is  no  incongruity  between  the  use  of  this  solemn 
command  as  the  Prophet  wrote  it,  and  the  use  to  be 
made  of  it  here.  The  arising  and  the  departure,  as 
the  passage  stands,  referred  to  a  visible  residence  ;  there 
was  to  be  a  literal  change  of  place.  But  even  there 
the  act  was  required  as  part  of  a  religious  discipline, 
and  for  a  divine  purpose.  The  national  condition  that 
made  such  a  migration  necessary  was  one  incident  in 
a  peculiar  providential  history.  The  outward  removal 
was  the  result  of  an  inward  state,  —  a  state  of  moral 
deterioration  and  danger.  Domestic  comfort  must  be 
abandoned  for  the  sake  of  the  spiritual  safety,  purity, 
and  progress,  of  a  corrupt,  imperilled  people.  The  call 
is  made  in  the  name  and  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God. 
In  all  these  respects,  the  original  bearing  of  the  lan 
guage  agrees  with  the  present  application  of  it.  There 
is  no  violence  in  transferring  it  from  a  Hebrew  to  a 
Christian  age.  The  need  that  a  self-absorbed  heart 
should  bestir  itself  and  arise,  —  should  go  forth  and 
follow  God's  call,  should  be  moulded  into  a  new  form 
and  born  into  a  new  life,  through  separation,  travail, 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  RENEWAL.  99 

sacrifice,  —  is  as  independent  of  the  differences  of  time 
and  country  as  any  attribute  of  humanity. 

Indeed,  this  permanence  of  the  essential  realities  of 
life  through  all  social  changes,  wherever  a  human  soul 
lives,  sins,  and  suffers,  furnishes  the  starting-point  in 
this  subject.  The  Maker  of  both  man  and  the  Gospel, 
fitting  the  one  for  the  other,  has  laid  a  preparation  in 
the  constitution  and  the  experience  of  every  one  of  our 
hearts  for  all  the  great  promises,  ministries,  and  beliefs, 
of  the  Word.  And  so,  if  we  make  a  reverential  ex 
amination  of  the  actual  proceeding  of  human  life,  in 
its  deeper  currents,  we  shall  find  there  a  universal  need, 
if  not  always  a  believing  cry,  for  the  power  and  the 
peace  that  come  of  the  Christian  change.  Unless  it  is 
the  emptiest  of  sentimental  exclamations,  the  peniten 
tial  prayer,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner,"  will  be 
followed  by  an  arising  and  departing,  with  new-born 
affections,  energies  that  are  not  of  the  flesh  but  the 
Spirit,  from  the  old  and  far  country,  for  the  Father's 
house. 

First  of  all,  the  true  growth  of  every  really  progres 
sive  character  is  made  through  a  succession  of  decided 
departures  out  of  positions,  habits,  estates  of  thought 
and  feeling,  which  have  once  become  familiar,  into 
untried  territories.  Some  of  these  points  of  transition 
belong  to  the  common  order  of  our  lives.  There  is 
the  passage  from  the  comparatively  irresponsible  and 
dependent  period  of  early  childhood  into  the  greater 
self-determination  of  youth,  —  a  spot  where  the  holy 
hand  of  our  religion  is  as  much  wanted,  to  help  the 
tempted  heart  through  the  sudden  rush  of  responsi 
bility,  and  through  the  strange  sense  of  freedom,  and 
through  the  restless  irritation  of  ill-adjusted  duty  and 


100  THE  ECONOMY  OP  RENEWAL. 

privilege,  —  a  spot  where  the  tranquil  influence  of  a 
spirit  of  faith  in  God  is  as  manifest  a  blessing,  —  as 
at  any  later  stage  in  the  whole  way.  "Within  the  safe 
enclosures  of  a  guarded  external  innocence  the  moral 
purposes  will  not  stay  any  longer.  They  would  not 
be  fulfilling  the  Creator's  design,  if  they  did.  That  is 
not  their  rest ;  they  must  arise  and  depart.  And  gen 
erally,  at  the  moment,  the  young  mind  is  eager  enough 
to  go ;  the  leave-taking  from  the  former  securities  is 
light-hearted  and  with  few  regrets.  It  is  only  they 
that  look  on,  from  places  further  along,  who  discover, 
underneath  the  merriment,  the  elements  of  pain  and 
tragedy  already  at  work.  Youth  must  see  its  visions, 
and  dream  its  dreams,  and  taste  its  awful  liberty. 
The  hour  for  that  comes.  Well  and  happy  for  it,  blessed 
for  it,  if  they  are  only  visions  of  purity  and  honor, 
dreams  of  holier  and  nobler  attainments,  a  liberty  never 
to  be  sunk  into  the  license  of  corruption,  and  by  that 
way  into  the  bondage  of  iniquity !  Yet  already  there 
is  judgment.  The  Past  begins  to  bear  its  fruit.  If 
father  and  mother  have  been  heedless,  passionate, 
worldly,  or  have  taught  one  thing  with  their  lips  at 
the  child's  bedside  now  and  then,  and  another  with 
their  life  every  day,  no  remonstrance  afterward  can  re 
trieve  that  fault.  Parental  fear  and  love  can  then  only 
send  out  their  ineffectual  entreaties  after  the  receding 
and  scarcely  listening  adventurer.  Misdirected  and 
robbed,  where  it  ought  to  have  been  fortified  and  en 
riched,  the  young  soul  must  nevertheless  arise  and  de 
part.  Or,  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  training  has  been 
Christian  so  far,  still  the  old  shelter,  however  gracious, 
would  presently  prove  a  prison-house.  God  must  be 
served  by  an  individual  will.  He  bids  each  go,  find  his 


THE   ECONOMY   OP   RENEWAL.  101 

vineyard,   bear  his  burden.     Moral   childhood  is  not 
our  rest. 

Again,  later,  there  is  a  transition  from  youth  into 
maturity.  The  dream  is  broken.  That  graceful,  airy 
tent,  which  the  uncommitted  thought  reared  for  itself 
at  will,  is  dissolved.  A  more  real  habitation,  of  severer 
shape,  supplants  it.  Or,  rather,  it  is  now  a  field  of  out 
door  service.  To  remain  at  the  less  arduous  post  would 
be  —  at  least,  for  more  timid  or  indolent  natures  —  the 
pleasanter  way ;  to  have  occupations  laid  out,  instead 
of  laying  them  out,  under  the  great  Taskmaster's  eye, 
ourselves;  to  have  our  comforts  provided  and  our 
costs  paid,  with  little  strain  of  forecast  and  self-denial ; 
to  be  receivers  and  observers  rather  than  laborers  and 
stewards ;  —  all  this  might  suit  the  sluggish  and  self- 
indulgent.  But  it  is  not  our  Maker's  plan.  Chilly 
as  the  future  looks,  the  least  enterprising  must  go  to 
meet  it.  Hedged  up  and  steep  as  the  path  lies,  we 
must  push  into  it,  and  clear  it,  and  conquer  it,  step 
by  step.  And  this,  not  because  of  any  blind  force  of 
fate,  or  any  drudging  necessity  of  a  mere  worldly  sub 
sistence,  but  because  it  is  the  sacred  calling  where 
with  our  God  calls  us.  The  Eternal  Spirit  is  very 
near.  It  is  a  miserable  stupidity  and  ingratitude  if 
we  fail  to  see  that  all  this  change  is  of  Him,  and  for 
Him,  and  must  be  religiously  turned  to  his  glory.  That 
result  the  honors  and  applauses  of  men  will  avail  noth 
ing  to  secure.  The  young  shepherd,  David,  going  forth 
from  his  pastoral  retirement,  is  found  presently  clad  in 
the  mantle  of  a  king.  But  what  then  ?  Will  the  king 
be  David  the  debauchee,  with  murder  in  his  lustful 
heart;  or  David  aspiring  to  build  a  temple  to  Je 
hovah?  If  the  first,  then  the  purple  and  the  crown 


102          THE  ECONOMY  OP  RENEWAL. 

are  no  consolation  in  that  hour  of  retributive  agony 
which  wrings  from  him  the  sobs  and  groans  and  bitter 
repentances  of  the  Fifty-first  Psalm. 

In  some  vague,  indefinite  way,  this  decree  of  de 
parture  makes  itself  felt  in  all  thoughtful  souls.  How 
many  a  young  man,  to  whom  the  guilty  resort  is  just 
as  hospitable  as  to  the  rest,  turns  away  with  a  sad  face 
from  the  shows  and  the  gayeties,  because  the  shadow 
of  a  more  earnest  and  holy  reality  has  fallen  upon  him ! 
You  say  he  seems  melancholy,  and  needs  to  have  his 
spirits  cheered;  and  you  think  the  plummet  of  your 
Epicurean  philosophy  has  sounded  him.  But  he  knows 
the  Prodigal's  country  and  the  charmer's  voice  as  well 
as  you  do.  The  old  enchanters  call,  but  he  does  not 
hear  them.  The  light  laugh  rings,  but  if  there  is  shame 
in  it  he  does  not  follow  it.  That  is  not  his  rest.  The 
spell  of  a  deeper  fascination  holds  him;  the  drawing 
of  a  mightier  attraction  leads  him.  The  vulgar  specta 
cle  may  shine  in  the  streets,  with  music  and  dancing ; 
but  close  by,  in  the  temple,  the  sages  are  sitting,  wis 
dom  speaks,  the  veil  before  the  ineffable  and  ever 
lasting  glory  is  lifted.  He  will  stand  and  look  and 
listen  there.  He  will  ask  questions  of  Revelation  and 
Eternity.  Almost  he  can  say,  with  that  divine  Child 
of  twelve  years  old  at  Jerusalem,  "  Wist  ye  not  that 
I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business  ?  " 

Beyond  these  earlier  and  successive  departures,  from 
one  period  of  our  age  to  another,  made  necessary  by 
the  inevitable  movement  of  time,  there  are  a  great 
variety  of  other  changes,  having  the  same  general  pur 
pose,  and  illustrating  the  same  plan  of  God.  With  a 
dealing  which  our  reluctance  and  disobedience  some 
times  make  sharp  and  dreadful,  now  in  warning  and 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  RENEWAL.          103 

now  in  promise,  but  always  tender,  always  affectionate, 
because  always  the  dealing  of  our  Father,  they  all 
invite  us  one  way.  They  repeat,  What  doth  the  Lord 
thy  God  require  of  thee,  amidst  all  this  fluctuation 
and  uncertainty,  but  to  follow  the  holy  commandment  ? 
They  bid  us  arise  and  depart,  because  we  have  here  no 
continuing  city,  that  we  may  seek  one  to  come. 

Sometimes  this  dissolution  of  our  former  order  of  life 
is  made  unavoidable  by  conditions  beyond  our  control. 
Sometimes  it  is  only  urged  upon  us  by  our  sense  of 
duty,  and  we  make  it  rather  than  be  openly  false  to  God, 
or  faithless  to  man,  or  traitors  to  our  better  selves. 
Sometimes  it  is  attended  by  an  outward  alteration  of 
fortune  or  dwelling-place,  which  only  gives  emphasis 
to  the  spiritual  lesson.  Sometimes  it  is  wholly  a  shift 
ing  of  the  internal  proportions  and  scenery  of  our  being, 
and  we  have  to  find  out  where  the  Spirit  would  have 
us  go  only  by  the  light  he  has  set  in  conscience  and 
in  his  Word.  In  one  way  or  another,  we  have  to  learn 
respecting  stage  after  stage,  where  we  had  thought  to 
find  a  permanent  repose,  and  to  be  able  to  lay  aside 
our  vigilance,  dismiss  our  anxiety,  relax  our  effort, 
and  lie  down  to  be  happy,  —  that  instead  of  that  we 
must  bestir  ourselves  once  more,  leave  the  dear  de 
lights  behind  us,  arise  and  depart,  for  our  rest  is  not 
yet. 

So,  for  example,  a  particular  line  of  employment  is 
found  to  have  furnished  all  of  opportunity,  or  stimulus, 
or  trial,  that  the  great  Former  of  our  characters  in 
tended,  and  it  is  broken  off.  A  particular  place  of 
residence  has  exhausted  all  its  helps  and  ministries 
upon  us,  and  we  must  take  up  the  little  parcels  that  we 
call  our  goods,  and  go  to  be  schooled  in  some  new  neigh- 


104  THE  ECONOMY  OP  RENEWAL. 

borhood.  A  particular  set  of  acquaintances,  or  kind 
of  business,  is  found  to  be  secretly  undermining  our 
principles,  leading  us  to  measure  truth  by  favor,  flat 
tering  our  pride,  or  confirming  our  prejudices,  or  soften 
ing  our  courage  in  duty,  or  circumscribing  our  sym 
pathies  and  judgments  by  the  petty  notions  of  a  class 
and  its  fashions ;  and  then  we  have  to  be  taken  off, 
and  cast  upon  simpler,  perhaps  rougher,  but  more  whole 
some  and  righteous  relationships.  Old  estates  are  sold 
and  divided.  Old  resorts  are  cut  off.  Old  houses  are 
taken  down.  Our  parents  die,  and  the  whole  domestic 
framework,  of  which  their  venerable  persons  were  the 
centre,  crumbles  to  pieces  over  their  graves.  Perhaps 
in  the  close  circle  of  our  own  household  affections 
these  affections  are  tempting  us  ;  our  human  love  grows 
selfish  and  ungodly ;  kindred  are  made  idols ;  our  own 
flesh  and  blood  stand  between  us  and  heaven,  casting 
shadows  and  not  light ;  wrong  is  transformed  into  an 
angel,  and  is  only  a  more  beguiling  wrong.  And  there 
fore,  in  that  mystery  of  bereavement  which  is  often 
"past  our  finding  out"  only  because  we  will  not  be 
still  and  look  where  the  Almighty  points,  these  circles 
are  sundered :  the  little  graves  or  the  longer  ones  are 
opened  and  filled,  and  the  windows  are  darkened,  and 
the  mourners  go  about  the  streets.  The  family  flower 
fadeth.  The  strong  faint,  and  the  beautiful  wither. 
Suddenly,  "  our  tents  are  spoiled,"  and  "  our  curtains 
in  a  moment."  One  by  one  we  arise  and  depart,  for 
this  is  not  our  rest. 

In  other  cases,  with  less  visible  signals,  but  not  less 
effectually,  we  are  moved  out  of  our  moral  and  mental 
habitations.  So  long  as  we  are  in  them,  nothing  seems 
more  fixed  than  our  opinions,  tastes,  and  estimates. 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  RENEWAL.          105 

But  they  may  become  too  fixed.  Opinion  hardens  into 
bigotry.  Tastes  grow  fastidious  and  luxurious.  Esti 
mates  of  men  and  things  stiffen  into  prejudices.  And 
hence,  by  one  process  or  another,  we  are  mercifully 
led  to  give  many  of  them  up,  or  modify  them.  Events 
are  ordered  to  that  end.  By  convictions  within  that 
we  cannot  resist  if  we  remain  honest  with  God,  or  by 
forces  without  that  we  cannot  resist  if  we  remain  honest 
with  men,  we  are  pushed  over  the  boundaries  of  party, 
or  sect,  or  a  scheme  of  thought  to  which  all  our  fibres 
were  fastened.  It  is  hard  loosening  them.  It  makes 
the  sensibilities  bleed,  and  the  affections  ache.  But 
our  progress,  our  piety,  nay,  our  integrity,  may  depend 
upon  it,  and  then  it  is  an  inexorable  master  that  says, 
"  Arise,  and  depart."  Rest  is  an  inferior  considera 
tion.  There  are  vices  of  the  intellect,  and  vices  of 
social  conformity,  and  vices  of  moral  indolence,  as  well 
as  vices  of  appetite ;  and  they  all  require  a  rigorous 
correction.  In  this  migratory  state,  we  are  meant  to 
be  kept  moving.  Every  moral  climate  here  is  more 
or  less  tainted,  and  grows  pestilential  if  we  linger  in 
it  too  long.  It  is  just  as  the  text  says :  "  This  is  not 
your  rest ;  —  because  it  is  polluted,  it  shall  destroy  you 
with  a  sore  destruction."  Pilgrims  and  foreigners,  it 
is  only  in  a  heavenlier  air  that  we  are  to  be  accli 
mated,  and  abide.  The  moment  we  come  to  consider 
our  scheme  of  living  satisfactory,  our  schedule  of  per 
formances  perfect,  some  unexpected  revolution  breaks 
in  like  a  whirlwind  to  disturb  this  complacency,  and 
set  us  into  larger,  perhaps  plainer  rooms,  where  we 
can  drink  in  more  light,  and  gain  a  deeper  wisdom, 
if  we  will.  If  we  have  been  living  by  the  average 
morality,  we  must  be  led  out  where  we  can  catch  sight 


106          THE  ECONOMY  OP  RENEWAL. 

of  a  loftier  and  more  absolute  standard.  If  we  have  been 
content  with  artificial  rules,  we  must  learn  to  walk  by 
faith.  If  we  have  counted  it  enough  to  do  as  others 
do,  or  to  escape  the  reproach  of  law  and  of  public 
opinion,  we  must  look  with  more  searching  and  hum 
ble  eyes  to  the  original  law  and  will  of  God.  Or,  if 
we  have  taken  our  own  instincts  or  reasonings  for  our 
religion,  then  the  cross  must  shine  out  in  the  sky 
where  we  worship,  and  we  must  kneel  and  be  peni 
tent  and  confess  at  the  foot  of  it,  and  henceforth  "  con 
quer"  both  self  and  the  world  "by  that." 

Secondly,  these  turns  of  the  inner  life  will  often  be 
painful,  demanding  something  more  than  a  natural 
or  stoic  courage.  This  is  implied  in  the  language.  We 
imagine  ourselves  in  a  state  of  rest.  It  may  be  sinful. 
It  may  be  false  and  foolish.  But  use  has  made  it  easy. 
Familiarity  has  deadened  conscience,  or  stifled  its  pro 
test.  The  senses  spread  their  couch,  and  deck  it,  and 
make  it  fragrant,  and  think  to  lie  luxuriously  upon 
it.  Avarice  builds  greater  barns  to  bestow  its  fruits 
and  its  goods,  and  says,  "  Soul,  take  thine  ease."  Con 
ceit  desires  no  improvement.  Religious  indifference 
wishes  only  to  be  let  alone.  But  no !  Pain  comes.  The 
insensible  heart  must  be  startled.  The  earthly  and  the 
divine  fight  together  within  us,  and  we  suffer  under  the 
conflict.  Fearful  controversies  —  as  of  our  will  against 
the  God  of  Right,  as  of  ourselves  against  ourselves  — 
must  vex  the  patience,  and  agitate  the  soul.  As  the 
mind  goes  up  to  vow  an  independent  allegiance  to  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord,  many  seductive  solicitations  are  plied 
to  quiet  it  back  into  its  ignoble  rest  again.  The  former 
habits,  taking  up  the  terms  of  honor,  say,  "  Do  not  leave 
us ;  never  break  the  old  friendship."  Degrading  asso- 


THE  ECONOMY  OP  RENEWAL.          107 

elates  say,  "  Do  not  set  yourselves  up  to  be  better  than 
your  equals ;  the  average  virtue  is  virtuous  enough ; 
anything  but  pretension  and  hypocrisy ! "  and  at  that 
shallow  sophistry  false  modesty  is  terrified.  Never 
theless,  the  secret  soul  knows  the  voice  of  the  Tempter 
—  knows  the  voice  of  its  Lord :  "  Arise,  depart !  " 

Comfort  says,  "  Stay  where  you  are ;  build  here  on 
the  plain.  "Why  try  the  unknown?  Why  tempt  the 
dangers  of  the  steeps  ?  Here  is  much  goods  for  many 
years ;  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry."  But  the  patient 
mountain  stands  there,  a  rough  stairway  from  the  plain 
to  the  sky,  and,  with  all  its  cliffs  and  thorns,  it  offers  a 
more  irresistible  invitation.  Arise !  Duty  lies  there, 
and  only  pleasure  here. 

Sometimes,  as  many  of  you  need  not  be  told  by  me 
or  by  anybody,  this  separation  from  familiar  evil  is  a 
struggle  as  between  life  and  death,  shaking  the  whole 
soul,  and  tearing  its  shrinking  quick  in  torture.  It 
is  like  the  sword  that  pierceth  to  the  dividing  asunder 
of  the  joints  and  marrow.  And  yet,  such  is  the  power 
of  the  conviction  of  the  spirit  of  truth  when  humility 
has  once  begun  its  holy  and  honest  work  within  us, 
how  many  even  go  out  to  meet  that  saving  sorrow! 
Indeed,  when  the  heart  has  slept  too  long  in  the  lap 
of  indulgence,  there  often  creeps  upon  it,  I  believe, 
an  undefined  feeling  that  before  long  this  rest  must 
be  ended:  the  foreshadow  of  some  darker  angel  cast 
across  the  path.  And  if  the  ear  of  our  sympathy  were 
quicker  and  finer  than  it  is,  we  should  doubtless  often 
overhear,  in  the  tones  that  breathe  around  us,  the  sad 
ness  and  the  prayer  of  an  unsatisfied .  spirit  striving 
against  the  evil  in  it !  Blessed  is  the  mind  that  springs 
with  alacrity  and  thanksgiving  to  its  better  ministry ! 


108          THE  ECONOMY  OF  RENEWAL. 

For,  thirdly,  all  true  souls,  really  touched  with  the 
Spirit,  and  consecrated  to  the  fellowship  of  Christian 
obedience,  will  be  ready  for  this  sacrifice.  Not  all 
equally  ready.  The  bonds  of  past  practice  and  attach 
ment  hang  unequal  weights  about  our  necks.  But 
what  awakened  soul  will  not  willingly  be  drifted  away 
from  the  accustomed  repose,  if  it  is  thereby  brought 
nearer  to  the  righteousness  and  charity  of  Christ? 
This,  in  fact,  is  the  test  of  the  sincerity  of  faith :  the 
willingness  to  give  up  all  that  has  been  precious  but 
not  holy,  and  launch  out  upon  the  future,  trusting 
only  to  the  Unseen  Hand,  —  like  the  Patriarch,  of 
whom  that  beautiful  thing  is  written,  that  when  he 
was  called  to  go  out  into  a  place  which  he  should 
after  receive,  he  obeyed,  and  went  out,  not  knowing 
whither  he  went,  dwelling  in  the  land  of  "  promise," 
and  looking  for  a  city  which  hath  foundations,  whose 
builder  and  maker  is  God.  Great  difficulties  will 
threaten  every  such  obedient  foot,  —  the  wilderness 
before,  the  bondage  to  evil  behind ;  but  God  is  mightier 
than  they,  —  a  pillar  of  fire  for  the  night,  and  of  bright 
cloud  by  day :  "  Greater  he  that  is  for  us  than  they 
that  are  against  us."  Outside  our  private  battle,  soci 
ety  exposes  gigantic  wrongs  to  be  redressed :  but  the 
right  which  is  to  redress  them  is  sure,  and  the  pro 
phetic  ear  of  hope  hears  the  sound  of  its  footsteps  from 
afar.  There  are  changed  faces,  disappointed  compan 
ions,- an  angry  class  or  denomination  forsaken,  sneers, 
imputations,  false  charges,  and  criticisms,  —  such  feeble 
weapons  of  the  modern  world's  inquisitions  as  betray  the 
cowardice  of  persecution,  without  its  positive  creed  or 
its  power.  But  these  are  not  a  terror  to  him  who 
hears  the  voice  say,  "  Awake,  arise,  and  Christ  shall 
give  thee  light ! " 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  RENEWAL.          109 

So,  through  familiar  analogies,  we  are  led  to  see  how 
the  sacred  provision  is  made,  in  our  fallen  but  still  as 
piring  nature,  for  that  one  only  radical  and  complete 
transformation  which  changes  the  governing  motive  of 
life,  —  the  "regeneration"  of  the  Gospel.  We  catch 
sight  of  a  solemn  and  beautiful  economy  of  spiritual 
renewal. 

It  has  been  said  that  no  period  of  our  life  becomes 
quite  intelligible  and  clear  to  us  till  we  quit  it  for 
the  next :  not  childhood,  till  we  have  left  it ;  not  youth, 
till  it  has  departed ;  not  life  itself  as  a  whole,  till  it 
verges  to  its  close.  There  is  certainly  truth  here; 
and  there  is  a  much  larger  and  more  sacred  truth 
connected  with  it.  Retrospect  is  not  all  our  outlook. 
Our  best  wisdom  is  not  gained  from  what  is  behind 
us,  but  from  what  is  above.  The  deficiencies  of  knowl 
edge  find  at  once  a  cause  and  a  compensation  in  the 
immeasurable  certainties  of  faith.  "  I  know,"  said  the 
Apostle,  "  in  whom  I  have  believed."  Our  great  want 
is  to  look  up,  with  just  that  assurance.  For  that  we 
have  to  be  moved  and  dislodged.  For  that  we  have 
to  change  our  state,  our  mind,  our  heart.  As  there 
are  arms  to  take  the  reluctant  child  up  and  carry  him 
to  his  good,  so  God  lifts  us  along.  We  are  born  that 
we  may  be  born  again.  We  live  that  we  may  have 
life  everlasting. 

Once  more,  when  the  heart  is  really  made  new,  and 
is  filled  with  all  the  holy  life  of  its  Lord,  it  matters 
nothing  what  the  outward  place  or  scenery  may  be. 
Then  there  is  no  restless  thirst  for  novelty,  no  con 
tempt  or  complaint  of  commonplace  task-work.  Then, 
even  in  the  new  country,  the  old  and  familiar  has  to 
be  taken  back.  There  is  much  in  common  between 
10 


110  THE  ECONOMY  OF  RENEWAL. 

the  forms  of  the  old  life  and  the  forms  of  the  new.  The 
same  people  have  to  be  met,  and  served,  and  endured. 
The  same  body  has  to  be  fed,  clothed,  exercised,  kept 
under.  The  same  crosses  of  temper,  self-disgust,  baffled 
aspiration,  have  to  be  borne.  No  emigration  transports 
us  out  of  the  reach  of  mortal  annoyance  and  infirmity. 
If  the  old  duties  look  small,  the  old  labors  irksome, 
and  the  old  places  incapable  of  religious  grandeur,  it 
is  probably  a  sign  that  the  new  heart  is  not  really  in 
us,  but  only  some  specious  and  vain  imagination  in 
stead.  It  is  rest  we  are  seeking,  then  —  and  that  is 
not  for  us  here.  We  are  breaking  from  Providence. 
After  his  high  communion  in  the  temple,  Jesus,  the  Lord 
of  souls,  went  back  to  Nazareth,  content  with  the  com 
panionships  of  his  childhood  for  eighteen  years  more, 
cheerful  with  a  village  reputation,  and  subject  to  Joseph 
and  Mary. 

To  this,  then,  we  are  brought,  that  there  is  one 
migration  of  the  soul  more  complete  and  adventurous 
than  all  besides :  that  which  takes  it  over  from  every 
kind  of  self-direction  into  a  pure  self-renunciation  to 
the  Spirit  of  God;  —  one  "  going  forth"  more  decisive 
and  sublime  than  all  journeys  or  discoveries  —  from 
the  miserable  effort  to  satisfy  ourselves  into  the  liberty 
of  the  sons  of  God ;  one  central  and  all-transforming 
change  —  that  which  refashions  us,  by  a  new  principle 
of  life,  from  the  likeness  of  sinful  men  into  the  like 
ness  of  God's  Son.  All  other  transitions  touch  us  at 
certain  points  or  parts  of  our  nature :  this  transfuses 
another  spirit  through  the  whole  ;  old  things  pass  away, 
because  the  old  evil  is  gone ;  and  all  things  are  new. 

Here  enters  the  regenerate  soul  upon  a  new  coun 
try,  which,  after  all,  turns  out  to  be  its  native  land. 


THE  ECONOMY  OP  RENEWAL.          Ill 

Coming  to  himself,  arising  and  going  to  his  Father 
from  his  famine,  the  Prodigal  finds  himself  at  home  — 
a  home  now  such  as  it  never  was  before.  Except  ye 
be  converted  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  cannot 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  But  childlikeness 
is  not  childishness.  If  we  try  to  keep  the  irresponsible- 
ness  of  childhood,  its  innocence  is  gone.  That  would 
be  only  staying  in  our  shelter  of  careless  impulse  and 
unconsecrated  custom,  till  the  shelter  is  a  "sore  de 
struction."  The  man  that  refuses  to  renounce  him 
self  for  Christ  on  the  plea  that  he  stays  as  he  was  made, 
mistakes  the  apathy  of  an  underling  for  the  freedom 
of  God's  child.  He  does  not  stay  as  he  was  made ;  for 
he  was  made  to  be  a  disciple,  growing  in  goodness, 
and  renewed  day  by  day.  If  he  is  not  that,  day  by 
day  his  depravity  is  debasing  him.  "  Seekest  thou  the 
highest  and  greatest,"  says  Schiller,  —  "  the  plants  can 
teach  it  to  thee.  What  they  are  involuntarily,  that 
be  thou  voluntarily ;  "  which  is  well  enough  for  poetry. 
But  what  if  the  plant  should  find  itself,  some  morning, 
with  a  twisted  stalk,  bruised  stem,  blighted  leaves, 
and  a  disordered  sap  running  in  all  its  veins?  Man 
can  never  take  his  Gospel  from  the  flowers.  If  he 
gives  up  to  the  nature  in  him,  he  is  a  great  deal  worse 
than  their  deadliest  poison.  If  by  the  grace  given  in 
Christ,  and  welcomed  by  holy  faith,  he  is  born  again 
and  brings  his  earthly  nature  under,  by  so  much  is 
he  nobler  than  all  their  beauty.  Immortal,  and  made 
alive  with  the  very  life  of  God,  he  can  say,  in  the 
grandeur  of  his  humility,  "It  is  no  more  I  that  live, 
but  Christ  liveth  in  me." 

And  now,  having  thus  traced  the  steps  of  this  great 
truth,   of  a  necessary  change  in   character  from   the 


112          THE  ECONOMY  OP  EENEWAL. 

sluggish,  selfish,  sinning  state,  till  Christ  is  formed 
there,  and  having  done  it  rather  in  the  language  and 
by  the  method  of  common  discourse,  it  only  remains 
to  remind  you  —  if  it  has  not  occurred  to  more  than 
one  of  you  already  —  that  for  all  this  doctrine,  and 
more  than  we  have  been  able  to  convey,  there  is  a 
statement  far  more  strong  and  complete,  more  clear 
and  convincing,  of  simpler  speech  and  sublimer  author 
ity,  in  the  Gospel  of  the  New  Testament.  There  you 
find  again  and  again,  repeated  in  as  many  forms  as 
the  heart  and  customs  of  men  could  need  it,  from  the 
lips  of  the  Redeemer  and  his  first  disciples,  that  truth 
of  which  all  this  train  of  remark  has  been  but  a 
feeble  echo,  or  exposition :  "  Except  a  man  be  born 
again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God."  There 
you  find  that  to  "  arise "  there  must  be  repentance 
toward  God  and  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  —  since 
"  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  us,  both  to  will  and  to  do." 
There  you  find  that  Lord  to  whom,  with  Peter,  when 
you  have  arisen  you  must  go,  because  he  alone  has  the 
words  and  the  gift  of  eternal  life.  There  you  see  re 
vealed  what  is  to  be  departed  from,  —  the  "  evil  heart 
of  unbelief,"  "  the  old  man  and  his  deeds,"  "  corrupt 
according  to  the  deceitful  lusts."  And  there  you  behold 
the  "  rest "  that  is  not  here,  but  remaining  "  for  the 
people  of  God,"  —  the  peace  that  is  given  not  as  the 
world  gives. 

And  then  all  that  is  earthly  can  be  freely  sacrificed 
for  this  life  divine.  When  we  go  out  from  one  resting- 
place  after  another,  it  may  feel  at  first  as  if  it  were  an 
exile  from  all  joy.  But  as  the  old  roof  drops  away, 
the  Almighty  arms  will  close  us  round  —  and  lo !  an 
other  house,  not  built  with  hands,  begins  already  to 


THE  ECONOMY  OP  EENEWAL.          113 

reveal  its  spiritual  symmetry,  its  fairer  form  and  eter 
nal  strength,  around  us.  Though  father  or  mother 
forsake  us,  the  Lord  will  take  us  up.  If  you  are  dis 
heartened  at  your  trivial  fruits  and  slow  advances, 
you  will  remember  that  even  the  great  Saints  and 
Prophets  who  have  done  most  have  been  conscious  of 
leaving  the  vast  work  of  good  unfinished,  —  dying,  one 
after  another,  "without  the  sight"  of  their  desired 
achievement,  —  still  declaring  that  "  they  seek  a  coun 
try."  Then  our  own  death  itself  is  no  more  terrible. 
We  cease  gazing  backward  to  the  Eden  behind,  but 
look  steadily  to  the  heaven  above.  We  lose  sight  of 
the  earthly  gardens  of  ease  and  pleasure  from  which 
our  infirmity  expelled  us,  in  expecting  the  immortality 
to  which  we  are  called.  Forgetting  the  things  that  are 
behind,  we  reach  forth  to  those  that  are  before,  —  willing 
to  arise  and  depart,  that  we  may  be  found  risen  in 
deed  into  newness  of  life. 


10* 


SEEMON    VII. 

NAMES  AND  ELEMENTS   OF  THE   GREAT   CHANGE. 

CONVERSION. Acts  XV.  3. 


word  is  now  separated  from  its   connections, 
because  it  better  serves  the  use  I  intend  to  make  of 
it  standing  alone  than  with  any  additions.      Exclud 
ing  every  other  matter,  I  wish,  with  the  help  of  your 
Mft"*™*1,  to  inquire  what  is   the   Christian   doctrine 
of  the   soul's  "  conversion/'    The  Christian   doctrine : 
let  us  give  emphasis  to  the  word  Christian.     For,  if 
we  were  to  enter  on  this  inquiry  through  the  forms 
of  human  opinion  upon  it,  following  the   method   of 
speculations,  criticising  all  the  theories  and 
that  men's  philosophies   and  fancies   have  in- 
and  fought  about,  we   should  be  quite   sure 
to  hare  a  very  long,  a  very  dull,  and  a  very  unprofitable 
«•!•••  •••••.»      But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  we  could  only 

catch  fiie  truth  as  it  comes  fresh,  direct,  and  radiant, 
out  of  fiie  heart  of  the  Xew  Testament,  we  should  be 
sure  of  something  dor,  simple,  attractive,  and  of  un 
speakable  fraciiMi  ralue. 

You  wfll  hardly  need  to  be  persuaded  that  Christ 
liMiia»lf  by  las  own  lips  and  through  his  Apostles,  tells 
«§  precisely  what  i§  to  be  believed  about  conve: 


: 


116   NAMES  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CHANGE. 

which  makes  character,  —  this  conversion  is  the  real  one, 

—  the  primary,  absolute,  essential  renewing.      So  that, 
state  the  Saviour's  benign  errand  on  earth  in  whatever 
language  you  will,  you  find  that  turning,  changing-, 
making   over,  was   his   central   purpose ;   and  that  is 
literally  conversion.     You  may  trace  this  idea  through 
all  his  parables  and  discourses.     It  was  to  clear  a  way 
into  men's  minds   for   the   entrance   of  this   renewing 
power   that   he    astonished    them   with   miracles   and 
warned  them  with  prophecies.    When  he  cured  so  many 
kinds  of  maladies,  he  pointed  inward  to  the  sick  heart, 
and  said  his  chief  design  was  to  heal  the  disorder  there, 

—  conversion.     When  he  raised  the  dead,  he  showed  by 
that  physical  sign  that  the  soul  must  be  raised  up  to 
a  new  life,  out  of  the  death  of  trespasses  and  sins,  —  con 
version.     When  he  cast  out  demons,  he  signified  that 
in   all   our  breasts   are   the  possessing    devils   of  self- 
love,  —  avarice,  lust,  vanity,  jealousy,  anger,  —  which 
must  be  cast  out  before  we  can  be  his  disciples  ;  —  con 
version,  again.      Some  of  his  last  words  on  the  cross 
were  a  recognition  of  a  malefactor's  conversion,  and 
a  blessing  upon  it.     After  his  resurrection,  on  his  walk 
to   Emmaus,   he   sought   to   convert  the   slow-hearted 
and  foolish  men  he  talked  with.    At  his  ascension  to 
the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  where  he  was  before,  he 
charged  his  disciples  to  go  forth  and  convert  the  people, 
founding  a  church  to  be  composed  of  converted  souls. 
Still,  we  are  taught,  he  liveth  to  make  intercessions, 
and  to  be  an  advocate  for  the  world's  conversion.     The 
Apostles  di(fr  as  they  were  bid ;  and  if  you  read  their 
history  and  letters   with  simplicity,  you  will  see  that 
the  burden  of  their  preaching  also,  like  their  Master's, 
was,  "  Repent  and  be  converted."    Christianity  has  not 


NAMES   AND   ELEMENTS   OF   THE   GREAT   CHANGE.        117 

renounced  its  character,  to  this  day.  It  still  finds  men 
needing  to  be  changed,  from  bad  to  good,  from  self-will 
to  devout  submission,  from  unbelief  to  faith,  from  world- 
liness  to  holiness,  from  petulance  and  intemperance 
to  a  principled  and  sweet  self-control,  from  gain  to 
God;  and  so  it  still  has  to  preach  a  new  character, 
a  changed  heart,  a  different  life.  And  precisely  that 
is  conversion. 

Much  has  been  done  to  confuse  and  perplex  the  sub 
ject  by  certain  technical  terms,  which  have  come  to 
be  invested  with  artificial  associations.  I  take  four 
of  these  words,  and  suggest  that  each  of  them,  after 
stripping  off  the  human  accretions,  signifies  something 
plain,  evangelical,  and  vital  to  the  matter;  and  that, 
in  fact,  by  combining  their  significations,  we  get  a 
complete  view  of  this  great  spiritual  necessity.  These 
four  words  are  Repentance,  Reformation,  Regenera 
tion,  Conversion. 

The  first,  Repentance,  taken  as  a  translation  of  the 
compound  Greek  word  used  in  the  New  Testament  to 
express  the  same  thing,  points  to  an  internal  alteration, 
or  a  thinking  differently  from  some  former  way  of  think 
ing.  The  modern  word  seems  also  to  introduce  a  refer 
ence  to  pain.  It  means  a  changed  mind,  an  altered  rul 
ing  purpose,  a  new  way  of  looking  at  things.  Used  as  it 
is  here,  it  means,  of  course,  a  new  way  of  looking  at 
the  deepest  and  greatest  thing,  the  central  thing,  the 
object  of  life,  or  our  relation  to  God.  This  change 
of  mind  affects  the  whole  judgment,  intention,  spirit, 
of  our  being.  It  implies  a  turning  about  in  the  direc 
tion,  the  drift,  of  a  man's  innermost  life.  If  he  re 
garded  the  world,  before  repentance,  as  a  place  merely 
to  get  the  greatest  amount  of  bodily  pleasure  in,  after 


118   NAMES  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CHANGE. 

repentance  he  will  regard  it  as  the  place  to  get  the 
greatest  amount  of  goodness  in ;  he  repents  of  his 
sensuality.  If  he  looked  upon  it  before  as  only  a  shop 
for  making  money,  afterwards  he  will  look  upon  it  as 
a  mission-field  for  cultivating  righteousness ;  he  re 
pents  of  his  sordidness.  If  he  treated  his  position  be 
fore  as  only  a  dressing-room  for  ostentation,  he  will 
afterwards  treat  it  as  a  vineyard  for  honest  and  useful 
labor;  he  will  repent  of  his  vanity  and  idleness.  If 
he  esteemed  men  and  women  before  only  as  beings 
made  to  promote  his  comfort,  and  advance  his  in 
terests,  he  will  afterwards  esteem  them  as  beings  that 
he  is  to  comfort,  and  whose  interests  he  is  to  serve ; 
he  will  repent  of  his  cupidity  and  selfishness.  And 
so  through  the  whole  circle  of  virtues  and  vices.  His 
inmost  purpose  is  changed.  Literally,  he  thinks  the 
other  way. 

But,  then,  consider  that  most  of  us  do  not  live  ac 
cording  to  mere  momentary  impulses,  but  according 
to  a  pretty  well  established  and  uniform  rule,  or  habit. 
We  may  not  be  conscious  of  having  adopted  such  a  rule 
at  any  particular  time,  but  practically  it  is  so.  Even 
the  most  impulsive  people  have  a  settled  method;  and 
that  is  the  simple  but  very  dangerous  method  of  acting 
as  they  happen  to  feel  inclined  at  the  moment.  If  you 
examine  yourself  carefully,  or  study  human  nature 
wisely,  you  will  also  find,  probably,  that  with  every  in 
dividual  -this  settled  rule  is  one  of  two,  —  viz.  self- 
gratification,  or  religious  principle.  I  know  there  are 
some  persons  kind-hearted,  sympathizing,  helpful,  by 
their  natures,  who  are  far  from  loyal  to  religious  prin 
ciple.  But  these  amiable  instincts,  being  natural,  and 
not  the  result  of  discipline,  or  conscience,  or  faith,  are 


NAMES   AND   ELEMENTS   OF   THE   GREAT   CHANGE.        119 

really  easier  to  their  possessors,  and  give  them  more 
pleasure,  than  the  opposite  order  of  feelings  would. 
So  that  these  persons  do  not  form  a  third  class,  as 
at  first  sight  they  seemed  to ;  they  belong,  after  all, 
to  those  whose  main  object  is  self-gratification. 

We  have,  then,  two  great  governing  motives,  —  two 
states,  by  which  mankind  are  broadly  divided :  that  in 
which  men  really  try  faithfully  to  live  by  a  righteous 
principle,  rooted  in  God  through  Christ,  on  the  one 
hand ;  and  that  in  which  they  live  carelessly,  at  the 
dictate  of  some  form  of  worldly  policy  or  self-gratifica 
tion,  on  the  other.  Hence  it  follows  that  to  be  changed 
from  the  last  of  these  to  the  first  —  which  is  a  change 
of  the  state,  or  of  the  ruling  affection  —  is  the  real  re 
pentance.  That  is  indeed  a  thing  of  the  mind,  the  in 
most  nature  of  the  man ;  what  constitutes  character  — 
what  makes  one  a  Christian,  from  having  been  not  a 
Christian.  This  is  the  Evangelical,  the  radical,  com 
prehensive  repentance. 

Furthermore,  as  this  change  of  the  mind,  or  of  the 
inner  man,  affects  one's  views  of  the  past,  as  well  as 
of  the  present  and  future,  it  must  of  course  be  ac 
companied  with  a  palpable  sorrow  that  the  past  life 
«has  been  what  it  has,  and  has  not  been  what  it  so 
plainly  ought  to  be.  In  a  true  repentance,  this  sorrow 
will  be  intense  and  bitter.  A  sincere  and  spiritual 
man  cannot  but  loathe  himself  for  having  done  those 
shameful,  vicious,  ungrateful  things.  Paul's  vivid  lan 
guage  of  self-condemnation  becomes  actual  and  natu 
ral  to  us.  We  are  disgusted  with  our  spiritual  mean 
ness.  Looking  up  to  Christ  and  his  redeeming  love, 
we  are  smitten  with  the  disgrace  that  we  should  so  long 
have  been  wounding  and  insulting  him.  Looking  to 


120   NAMES  AND  ELEMENTS  OP  THE  GREAT  CHANGE. 

the  Holy  Spirit,  so  infinitely  tender  and  forbearing, 
we  feel  that  the  first  utterance  of  prayer  must  be  a 
confession  of  unworthiness,  —  a  cry  for  pardon  and 
deliverance  from  a  deserved  ruin.  And  if  this  grief 
is  not  a  mere  dictate  of  selfish  fear,  or  mercenary 
calculation,  but  a  spiritual  penitence  because  the  pure 
God  has  been  offended,  and  the  crucified  Christ  wronged, 
then  it  is  that  godly  sorrow,  needing  not  to  be  repented 
of,  or  changed  from,  which  purifies  and  brings  peace 
and  pardon  to  the  heart.  This  is  repentance. 

The  second  of  the  four  words  is  Reformation.  To  take 
the  special  force  of  this,  you  have  only  to  separate  it 
into  its  elements  —  re-formation.  This  takes  us  out 
from  the  interior  process,  signified  by  repentance,  into 
the  external  part  of  the  change.  It  is  no  less  a  change 
than  the  other ;  for  whereas  that  gave  a  new  spirit,  this 
gives  a  new  form.  That  was  thinking,  feeling,  purpos 
ing,  aiming  another  way :  this  is  being  formed  another 
way.  That  breathed  into  the  life  a  new  principle :  this 
clothes  it  in  a  different  shape.  That  was  a  concern  of  the 
heart  —  the  affections :  this  is  a  concern  of  conduct,  or 
action.  Taking  the  comparison  of  a  tree,  repentance 
would  change  the  vital  element,  the  nature  of  the  circu 
lating  sap ;  reformation  would  show  a  different  kind, 
of  fruit,  as  no  longer  thistle-down  or  thorns,  but  figs 
or  grapes. 

Reformation  is  just  as  essential  as  repentance.  That 
is,  it  is  just  as  essential  that  you  should,  up  to  your 
power,  do  the  deeds  of  a  good  man  or  woman,  as  that 
you  should  take  the  resolution  to  be  a  good  man  or 
woman.  If  you  are  heartily  sorry  for  misspent  years, 
you  will  make  it  your  business  to  spend  your  future 
years  wisely.  If  you  are  called  to  renounce  an  un- 


NAMES  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CHANGE.   121 

devout  heart,  the  same  Lord  calls  you  to  work  with 
holy  hands.  In  whatever  the  past  has  been  irreligious 
and  mean,  the  future  must  be  sanctified  and  noble. 
Despising  your  selfishness,  you  must  go  on  to  gener 
osity.  Renouncing  a  paltry  ambition,  you  must  serve 
humanity  and  truth  for  their  own  immortal  sake.  The 
invisible  energy  that  makes  the  acorn  vital  is  nothing, 
unless  you  give  it  soil  and  air  for  growth  and  expan 
sion  into  the  fair  proportions  of  the  oak. 

Thus,  in  fact,  reformation  becomes  the  test  of  re 
pentance,  proving  its  sincerity  and  its  worth.  We  infer 
that  a  miser  is  penitent,  when  we  see  him  giving  lib 
erally  to  the  poor,  or  to  spreading  the  Gospel.  A  sen 
sualist  may  profess  to  have  repented;  but  we  are  not 
sure,  till  we  see  him  forsaking  dissipation,  and  living 
temperately  and  chastely.  A  vain,  frivolous  girl  de 
serves  small  confidence  as  repenting,  till  her  whole 
appearance  reveals  a  constant  life  hidden  with  Christ 
in  God,  and  the  dignity  of  a  sober  devotion  to  the 
welfare  of  others.  It  is  not  to  be  believed  that  a  sul 
len  or  angry  temper  has  been  actually  repented  of, 
till  the  countenance  loses  its  unhallowed  fire,  and  the 
voice  its  asperity,  and  the  words  come  gently,  like  his 
who  when  he  was  reviled  reviled  not  again. 

Now,  obviously,  reformation  must  be  a  much  slower 
process  than  repentance.  A  thought  may  dart  instantly 
through  the  mind ;  a  feeling  may  flash  across  the  heart 
like  the  lightning  across  a  cloud ;  sorrow,  the  sincerest, 
may  wring  the  soul  during  a  single  breath.  And  in  a 
certain  sense,  the  man  may  be  thus  changed,  because  the 
heart  is  changed,  and  the  face  is  turned.  But  that  build 
ing  up  of  character  which  we  call  reformation,  and  which 
gives  to  repentance  its  value,  is  the  patient  work  of  a  life. 
11 


122   NAMES  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CHANGE. 

After  the  beginning  is  a  progress,  patient,  pains 
taking,  unceasing.  All  is  not  over  with  the  rising  of 
the  day-star,  or  the  flush  of  dawn.  The  transport  of 
a  new  sensation  is  not  the  great  object  of  a  Christian 
conversion.  With  some  that  will  be  more  vivid  than 
with  others  —  partly  on  account  of  temperament,  partly 
on  account  of  the  sharpness  of  the  contrast  between  the 
old  life  and  the  new.  With  some  it  will  be  more  sudden 
than  with  others.  There  is  nothing  in  nature  to  pre 
vent  its  coming  sometimes,  as  it  did  to  Paul,  and  many 
a  strong  and  consistent  believer  since,  like  the  instan 
taneous  throwing  open  of  a  close,  dark  room  to  the 
sun.  But  there  is  everything  to  prevent  its  being 
transient,  —  i.  e.  if  it  is  true,  —  its  vanishing  like  the 
lightning,  or  fading  in  early  clouds.  It  must  endure ; 
and  not  only  endure,  but  grow.  It  must  shine 
brighter  and  brighter  unto  the  perfect  day.  Perhaps 
the  first  freshness  will  not  be  always  felt  in  it.  Nay, 
as  the  day  grows  fierce  and  long,  and  the  toil  heavy, 
the  birds  may  stop  singing,  and  there  may  be  dust 
and  heat.  Resolute  souls,  counting  the  cost,  will  not 
faint,  nor  look  back  with  longing  to  the  morning.  The 
day's  work  is  better  than  the  morning's  hope ;  the 
sheaves  of  harvest  are  better  than  the  seed-time.  If 
the  spiritual  life  has  really  sprung  from  its  eternal 
source,  and  knows  its  resting-place  in  God,  we  shall  not 
complain  of  the  burden,  nor  forget  the  fountain,  nor 
•withhold  our  hand  till  the  evening. 

The  third  term  is  Regeneration.  This  brings  into 
the  doctrine  a  third  element,  as  indispensable  as  either 
of  the  other  two.  Repentance,  as  we  have  seen,  is  an 
act  of  the  individual  himself,  though  an  act  that  is 
internal,  affecting  the  dispositions,  or  spirit.  Reforma- 


NAMES  AND  ELEMENTS  OP  THE  GREAT  CHANGE.    123 

tion  expresses  an  act  without,  —  or  rather  a  series  of 
acts,  —  yet  one  that  is  equally  the  work  of  human  agency. 
But  regeneration  is  a  term  which  shows  us  that  in  all 
this  change,  including  both  repentance  and  reformation, 
we  are  not  acting  of  ourselves  alone,  but  are  moved, 
are  acted,  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  Regeneration,  or  being 
born  again,  is  then  something  done  for  us.  The  second 
birth,  like  the  first,  is  in  some  sense  independent  of 
personal  agency.  Our  part  in  it  is  faith  —  yielding  to 
it.  Be  ye  born  again,  the  Saviour  says.  Our  part 
is  the  trust  which  lets  the  Spirit's  influence  into  our 
hearts.  Our  part  is  to  receive  God's  gift,  —  seconding 
it  by  a  holy  purpose.  In  all  genuine  renewing  there 
is  a  power  acting  upon  us  from  above,  —  God's  power, 
whose  energy  is  felt  through  Christ's  redemption  and 
the  Comforter's  presence.  The  task  is  too  great  for 
our  damaged  competency  and  our  enfeebled  faculties. 
The  vivifying  and  gracious  Spirit  must  breathe  over 
and  quicken  our  dulled  and  sluggish  souls,  as  the 
genial  gale  of  spring  wakens  the  clover  and  wheat 
on  the  warm  April  furrow.  Our  spiritual  renewing 
is  from  above.  "  No  man  can  come  unto  me,"  said 
Jesus,  "  except  the  Father  who  hath  sent  me  draw 
him."  "We  are  roused  into  this  more  glorious  life, 
this  resurrection  from  moral  death,  only  by  coming 
into  contact,  by  faith,  with  him  who  comes  to  give  life 
unto  the  race,  —  himself  the  light  and  life  of  the  whole 
believing  and  living  world.  "  Of  mine  own  self,"  un 
assisted  in  this  regeneration,  "  I  can  do  nothing ;  but 
I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ  strengthening  me." 

So  we  come  to  the  last  of  the  four  terms  in  question, 
which  is  Conversion.  This  signifies  the  entire  result, 
—  the  turning  of  the  whole  nature  together  from  one 


124   NAMES  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CHANGE. 

state  to  its  opposite.  When  repentance  has  changed 
the  grand  ruling  affection  within,  when  reformation 
has  wrought  a  corresponding  renewal  of  the  outward 
life,  and  when  both  have  been  done,  not  in  the  imagina 
tion  of  any  conceited  mortal  ability,  but,  as  they  can 
only  be  done,  by  self-renouncing  and  holy  submission 
to  the  silent  energy  of  the  indwelling  and  inworking 
Spirit  of  the  living  God  moulding  us  as  he  will,  —  then 
indeed  is  the  soul  created  anew  in  Christ  Jesus.  Spirit 
ually  it  is  no  more  the  same,  but  another.  The  in 
spiring'  and  regulating  force  is  different ;  for,  instead 
of  being  the  narrow  and  dark  dominion  of  self-will,  it 
is  the  free,  large,  upward-soaring  love  of  the  Father, 
kept  warm  and  glowing  in  the  love  of  man.  The  sub 
stantial  body  of  life  is  different.  Instead  of  the  ferment 
of  the  passions,  the  ever-disappointing  scramble  of  am 
bition,  the  strain  of  unrewarding  competition,  the  strife 
of  worldliness,  there  is  the  calm  work  of  righteous 
ness;  everything  is  colored  by  the  celestial  tints  of  a 
heavenly  hope ;  the  secret  influence  of  a  divine  com 
munion  spreads  into  the  commonest  drudgery ;  daily 
toil  is  elevated;  the  hands  are  sanctified;  more  and 
more,  not  by  spasmodic,  strange,  or  fantastic  jerks,  but 
by  a  steady  growth,  as  orderly  as  "  the  blade,  the  ear, 
and  the  full  corn  in  the  ear,"  the  Christian  disciple 
is  fashioned  into  the  likeness  of  his  Lord.  The  influ 
ence  from  above  is  different;  for  instead  of  being  a 
mere  preserving  Providence,  which  is  nominally  recog 
nized  and  practically  disobeyed,  it  is  the  accepted  and 
welcomed  inspiration  of  the  Holy  One,  helping  our 
infirmities,  encouraging  our  timidity,  pardoning  us  in 
our  penitence,  urging  us  forward  in  our  reformation,  — 
Renewer,  Quickener,  Comforter,  Sanctifier.  Repent- 


NAMES   AND    ELEMENTS   OF  THE   GREAT   CHANGE.        125 

ance,  Reformation,  Regeneration,  are  here  united,  con 
summated,  and  consolidated.  This  is  the  conversion 
that  Christ  proclaimed,  that  the  cross  provided,  that 
the  resurrection  symbolized,  that  the  Apostles  preached, 
that  has  filled  the  ranks  of  the  church,  that  we  are 
told  heaven  is  entered  by,  when  it  is  said  that  "Ex 
cept  a  man  be  born  again  he  cannot  see  the  king 
dom  of  God." 

Thus  do  we  see  that  each  of  these  four  terms,  which 
we  are  apt  to  employ  indiscriminately,  and  half-indiffer- 
ently,  as  if  they  all  expressed  some  unreal  or  vague 
thing,  stands  for  a  distinct,  intelligible,  and  most  in 
teresting  fact  in  a  Christian's  experience.  Each  denotes 
a  step  in  the  way  to  eternal  life.  Through  each  every 
soul  must  pass  which  is  to  have  strength,  beauty,  free 
dom, —  which  is  to  attain  either  the  noble  and  fair 
proportions  of  Christian  excellence  here,  or  the  be 
liever's  immortality. 

Not  one  of  the  three  first  can  be  left  out,  if  you 
would  attain  the  blessedness  of  the  last.  Theological 
sects  have  often  tried  to  put  one  for  the  whole,  and 
so  have  blundered  into  the  worst  practical  errors, 
narrowing  the  broad  Gospel,  and  crippling  the  soul's 
progress. 

We  cannot,  for  instance,  take  repentance  alone,  and 
call  that  conversion.  To  change  the  mind,  or  feeling, 
or  purpose,  is  the  first  thing;  but  it  avails  little  if 
we  do  not  press  forward  to  reformation  of  the  life. 
That  would  be  the  seed  sown  where  there  is  no  depth 
of  earth.  The  beginning  is  right,  and  the  promises 
are  fair,  but  all  ends  some  day  in  a  miserable  apostasy. 
Characters  of  that  stamp  are  loud  in  pretension  and  pro 
fession,  but  soon  fall  into  dismal,  foul  endings.  This 
11* 


126       WAWBR  ASD  ELEXZ: 


without 

of  feeling  without  the  patient 
Society  has  been  often  de- 

"*-          ^.T.  ,—„ 

I_7r  I     ..     -} 

2^   ':...."  i7_    .i._i    15   7;    i7.Ti_ii   "^;T.  ;  77 
regeneration  by  the  Spirit ;  for  what  m  it  that  a 

^^_     __~     ~_  "7T~-_"—  I     __     r  r .     7 _jl  r     T__'.r          7-       !7     I__7T 

ibe  Almi^ity  niiJHn  of  all  life  and  yupui 
^»  both  to  wifl  and  to  dp? 


40  right  motives.     It  is  all  mrttmlr  work.    It  is 

. •  '_'•    ••     ••      -    --»       -  VIA,     .     •   _.  _  .         •«« 

.:_.i.   c:: —     :_-       .^.:i:  — :-:.  .      :..  - 

"     :     .     '...'.'-...    —  "  .  -    - .   ".     .    - " -:.::._:. 

\  ^     LI'— IT.   "-"Ill    I__l~    ^1 1  7  7      -  ~     I.    Til—I"  I  I"  —I  "•"    LIL..TJ.  TI  I  H     .1 
1    .  -IT .  *  T .  Ul     '  "-'- "  r  '     •" '     rZ-T      !  •       I  T  _  -I  7     "_'_  -I  Ll_  5.     -.^1.      TI '  I  -1 1  •  . 

~"    —  -  -     ^       -  -  —        -  -     ."  ^  ~  ~  "  "    ^        ~      ~_      ~  ~    ^__          '^  ^ -'  ~  *  t 

But  if  it  if  not  rooted  in  holy  principle,  in  a  coniiction 
that  aft  f"  is  liitTfiil  and  •"•••'••ML  in  a  tibortHigh  tnni 
mg  of  the  heart  to  Christ,  it  wffl  not  stand  sharp 

trials,  nor  wffl  h  yield  die  heaTHily  fruits.     And  with- 

_  7  ~  I  M  T     _I- I r  I_  I  i     !I_     T  _  I     ^  T!  I .  -  T .    "    I T  _  I  71 T        T7~".r 

"    -'-_!  —  T      T-.I 


So,  again,  regeneration  *MIM<*  be  without  repentance 
and  refioanation.     for  God  newer  *'«••!•  •!•   our  mn  ; 

^^  ^  -    -        .  ^       ,^  _^        ,.        ^  .^         .  .  ^_  ^  _.__..,.  -j^- 

- 

forbearing  as  our  Father  is,  he  does  not  ave  us 
our  wilL  Xo  soul  is  feared  into  the  kingdom 
of  beaten.  JMr  -  can  we  CTCT  be  born  again,  except 
as  we  voluntarily  open  our  breasts  to  receive  the  di 
vine  gift  from  on  high,  and  freely  yield  our  bodies  and 
lives,  servants  of  righteousness,  The  Saviour  calls: 


NAMES   AND   ELEMENTS   OF   THE   GREAT   CHANGE.        127 

we  must  answer.  The  Spirit  pleads:  we  must  arise 
and  come.  Heaven  throws  wide  its  gates :  we  must 
enter  in. 

Laying  aside  all  dogmatical  prepossessions,  then,  do 
we  not  get  a  plain  and  effective  doctrine  from  the 
study  of  these  scriptural  terms  ?  Conversion  is  three 
fold.  Xo  one  of  the  three  elements  can  be  omitted 
without  weakening  and  damaging  the  whole.  Repent, 
reform,  receive  and  quench  not  the  Spirit  by  which 
the  new  birth  is  given,  —  and  ye  shall  enter  into  life. 

Gathering  up  the  practical  points  of  the  doctrine, 
we  find  them  also  to  be  three. 

First,  of  this  new  life  in  the  heart  Christ  himself 
is  the  immediate  source.  The  knowledge  of  it,  the 
power  of  it,  the  promise  of  its  exceeding  joy,  all  come 
by  him.  His  words,  his  life,  his  cross,  move  us  to 
repentance,  stimulate  us  to  reformation,  baptize  us 
in  the  waters  of  regeneration.  The  more  intimately 
we  enter  into  fellowship  with  his  life,  the  more  we 
bear  his  spiritual  image,  the  more  we  are  impelled 
by  his  heavenly  affections,  the  more  truly  regenerate 
will  our  souls  be.  The  New  Testament  always  asso 
ciates  a  true  conversion  with  faith  in  his  person.  Look 
to  his  sufferings,  and  repent  of  the  sins  for  which  he 
bled.  Look  to  his  example,  and  be  reformed  into  the 
character  of  which  he  is  the  pattern.  Look  to  his  per 
petual  and  secret  influence  over  the  believer's  heart,  — 
the  Comforter  he  promised  to  give  after  his  ascension,  — 
and  be  new-created  by  his  Spirit.  It  is  his  own  word, 
"  I  have  come  that  they  might  have  life." 

Again,  we  see  what  is  for  us  personally  to  do.  It  is, 
by  the  energy  of  an  inward  resolution,  to  renounce  our 
state  of  indifference,  *o  disown  sin,  to  cast  off  the  works 


128   NAMES  AND  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CHANGE. 

of  darkness,  not  to  be  satisfied  with  social  respecta 
bility,  to  have  a  changed  mind,  a  new  purpose,  a  Chris 
tian  aim  ;  i.  e.  to  repent.  It  is,  by  constant  fidelity, 
by  imitation  of  the  perfect  example,  by  effort,  by  all 
means  of  help  and  grace,  to  live  righteously ;  i.  e.  to 
reform.  It  is,  by  childlike  trust,  by  tractable  affections, 
and  above  all  by  the  prayer  which  kneels  in  daily  adora 
tion  through  the  interceding  Son,  to  welcome  the  re 
newing  Spirit ;  i.  e.  to  be  regenerated  from  above. 

And  finally,  we  witness  the  beauty  and  the  glory  of 
the  result.  A  consecrated  life,  —  what  spectacle  of 
dignity  or  loveliness  can  all  our  visions  of  the  good 
or  the  fair  bring  into  comparison  with  that  ?  It  is 
the  consummation  of  man's  estate.  It  is  the  crown 
of  humanity.  It  is  the  flower  of  all  the  world.  Peace 
after  storms  ;  bursts  of  morning  sunlight  after  murky 
tempests ;  spring  verdure  and  blossoms  after  the  cold 
trance  of  winter  ;  resurrection  after  death  ;  —  all  these 
but  faintly  image  the  peace,  the  sunlight,  the  vitality, 
the  power  of  a  Christian's  heart,  recreated  in  Christ 
Jesus.  For,  "  if  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new 
creature.  Behold,  old  things  are  passed  away,  and 
all  things  are  become  new." 


SEEMON    VIII. 


PERMANENT    REALITIES    OF   RELIGION,  AND   TIMES   OF 
SPECIAL  RELIGIOUS  INTEREST. 


SEEK  YE  THE  LORD  WHILE  HE  MAY  BE  FOUND,  CALL  YE  UPON 
HIM  WHILE  HE  IS  NEAR.  LET  THE  WICKED  FORSAKE  HIS  WAY, 
AND  THE  UNRIGHTEOUS  MAN  HIS  THOUGHTS  :  AND  LET  HIM  RE 
TURN  UNTO  THE  LORD,  AND  HE  WILL  HAVE  MERCY  UPON  HIM  ; 
AND  TO  OUR  GOD,  FOR  HE  WILL  ABUNDANTLY  PARDON.  —  Isaiah 
Iv.  6,  7. 

To  a  singular  degree,  the  history  of  religion  is  also 
a  history  of  the  power  of  names.  Once,  names,  if  they 
are  really  names,  had  things  corresponding  to  them ; 
and  the  existence  of  the  thing  accounts  for  the  name. 
So  long  as  this  correspondence  continues,  —  the  actual 
name  standing  clearly  for  the  fact,  and  the  same  fact 
being  always  pointed  to  by  the  name,  —  so  long  all 
goes  well ;  language  fulfils  its  designed  office  as  a 
sign  of  realities,  and  as  a  medium,  or  currency,  for 
thought;  men  are  mutually  helped  and  enlightened 
by  it ;  science  finds  it  a  safe  instrument ;  instruction 
and  debate  become  possible ;  knowledge  is  increased. 
So  that,  sometimes,  hardly  any  better  benefit  can  be 
conferred  on  a  thing  than  to  get  a  good,  true  name  for 
it.  Many  a  great  cause  has  been  signally  advanced, 
has  virtually  conquered,  when  some  genius  in  states 
manship,  in  reform,  in  letters,  has  penetrated  to  its 
core,  and  named  it. 


130  PERMANENT   REALITIES   OF   RELIGION,   AND 

Iii  other  cases  this  natural  relation  is  broken  ;  either 
the  thing  is  found  without  the  name,  or  the  name 
without  the  thing,  or  names  are  transposed  and  applied 
to  the  wrong  objects.  Then  arise  discussions  that  yield 
less  light,  and  are  farther  from  the  heart  of  the  matter ; 
then  come  confusion  and  verbiage,  and  an  unprofitable 
attention  to  the  letter  that  killeth,  rather  than  the  spirit 
that  giveth  life.  Then  come  the  vexed  interpretations 
of  instruments,  questions  of  a  constitution  with  a  party 
for  each,  an  age  of  controversy,  dogmatism,  appeals  to 
documents  and  lexicons,  commentary  upon  commentary, 
—  and  then,  sometimes,  an  age  of  mere  cant,  formality, 
and  ventriloquism.  We  feel  then  what  Dr.  South  calls, 
in  the  title  of  a  celebrated  sermon,  "  the  fatal  imposture 
and  force  of  words."  This  process  had  begun  so  early 
in  the  Christian  church  as  the  time  of  Paul,  who  evi 
dently  had  a  lively  sense  of  the  evil,  repeatedly  warning 
Timothy  against  disputings  and  dotings  about  ques 
tions  and  strifes  of  words,  which  minister  no  edifying 
and  are  to  no  profit,  but  subvert  the  hearers ;  and 
so,  it  need  not  be  added,  it  has  continued  to  this  day. 

Religion  is  not  wholly  peculiar  in  this  respect ;  other 
great  human  interests  have  had  to  suffer  in  the  same 
way,  for  the  error  is  not  in  a  particular  subject,  but 
in  human  nature,  —  it  is  the  resort  of  a  superficial  or 
less  earnest  mood,  taking  refuge  from  moral  or  in 
tellectual  dissatisfaction  in  phrases,  or  feeding  empti 
ness  of  feeling  on  husks.  Only  you  notice  that  where 
the  interests  involved  are  most  palpable  to  sense,  there 
the  mere  name  has  least  control.  Material  commerce 
suffers  comparatively  little  in  that  way ;  yet  there  are 
instances  of  it  even  there.  Men  have  been  kept  from 
great  enterprises,  great  gains,  by  the  power  of  names 


TIMES   OP   SPECIAL   EELIGIOUS   INTEREST.  181 

alone;  refusing  to  colonize  fruitful  lands,  refusing  to 
admit  new  discoveries  of  vast  material  productiveness, 
refusing  to  embark  in  prosperous  ventures,  for  no  other 
reason.  So  agriculture,  manufactures,  and  trade  have 
been  kept  back.  Yet,  generally,  the  plainer  the  profit 
the  less  hinder ance  from  a  name.  When  we  come 
to  the  region  of  feeling,  and  of  ideas,  or  of  a  welfare 
that  is  spiritual,  the  name  will  be  relatively  more 
effective,  just  because  the  thing  is  less  palpable.  And 
when  you  tell  men  to  stop  doing  wrong,  and  begin  to 
do  right,  to  put  off  their  hardness  and  selfishness,  and 
live  like  children  of  God,  to  get  them  a  new  heart 
and  a  new  spirit,  some  of  them  will  tell  you,  perhaps, 
No,  they  shall  not  do  that,  because  that  would  be  a 
"  Revival  of  Religion."  We  are  to  look  beneath  this 
term,  "  a  Revival,"  to  the  reality  it  has  been  chosen 
to  express. 

I.  "  Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  he  may  be  found,  call 
ye  upon  him  while  he  is  near.  Let  the  wicked  forsake 
his  way,  and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts:  and 
let  him  return  unto  the  Lord,  and  he  will  have  mercy 
upon  him ;  and  to  our  God,  for  he  will  abundantly 
pardon." 

Commonly  those  sentences,  read  as  the  text  of  a 
sermon,  might  convey  110  other  than  their  direct  mean 
ing,  —  their  simple  contents ;  and  certainly  language 
was  never  written  in  a  more  direct  or  simple  sense. 
Used  so  now,*  they  very  likely  associate  with  them 
the  thought  of  a  particular  religious  movement,  acting 
through  the  community ;  and  in  their  association  with 
that  movement,  according  to  the  view  taken  of  it  by 

*  April,  1858. 


132  PERMANENT  REALITIES   OF  RELIGION,   AND 

two  classes  of  persons,  meet  a  furtherance  or  a  hinder- 
ance  to  their  natural  impression.  Here  are  preached 
two  duties,  —  repentance  and  reformation.  Men  are 
bidden,  by  one  of  the  Lord's  Prophets,  by  one  of  the 
great  thinkers  and  reformers  of  history,  as  from  the 
Lord  himself,  and  for  the  sake  of  their  own  good,  to 
come  back  from  the  way  of  iniquity  to  the  way  of 
religious  integrity ;  to  pass  from  a  state  of  self-seeking 
to  a  seeking  after  God  ;  to  repent  of  sin,  and  be  for 
given  for  it.  Of  course  the  ability  is  implied,  goes 
with  the  duty,  measures  the  obligation.  If  anybody 
is  unable,  the  call  is  not  for  him ;  and  if  the  disability 
is  general,  the  whole  message  is  void,  and  can  only 
return  to  heaven ;  which,  in  the  same  passage  with 
the  text,  God  promises  his  "  word "  shall  not  do,  but 
rather  refresh  the  earth,  like  rain.  But  beyond  this, 
to  some  persons  the  words  will  have  more  power  now, 
to  others  less  acceptance  now,  for  the  reason  just  given. 
We  cannot  well  afford  much  time  to  a  mere  criticism 
on  either  side  of  a  temporary  attitude  of  a  great  truth ; 
but  it  lies  in  the  way,  and  it  is  a  proper  subject  for  un 
prejudiced  examination.  Instead,  therefore,  of  taking 
up  with  a  mere  name,  "  Revival,"  which  name  may 
possibly  have  become  unrelated  to  the  essential  thing, 
or  been  artificially  colored  by  the  accessories,  let  us, 
at  the  outset,  try  to  look  in  on  the  substantial  facts, 
which  for  Truth's  sake  we  ought  to  see,  and  seeing 
to  revere. 

The  first  of  them  is  that  to  have  the  feeling  of  God 
awakened,  made  alive,  in  any  human  heart,  is  a  good. 
That  is  a  very  tame  expression.  It  is  the  one  good 
of  life.  It  is  so  vast,  and  deep,  and  wide,  and  beautiful, 
and  comforting,  and  satisfying  a  good,  that  no  other 


TIMES   OF   SPECIAL   RELIGIOUS  INTEREST.  133 

good  deserves  to  be  mentioned  in  comparison.  Like 
Him  who  comes  to  embody  and  open  its  glory  on  the 
world,  it  is  "  the  desire  of  all  nations."  Whatever 
difficulties  there  may  be  in  reaching  it,  whatever  igno 
rance  in  seeking,  whatever  obstacles  from  passion, 
pride,  or  sense,  or  a  fickle  will,  it  is  all  that.  And 
if  it  is  all  that  for  one  person,  it  cannot  be  less  for 
many.  The  more  hearts  it  comes  to,  possesses,  and 
fills,  the  greater  the  good.  The  sooner  it  comes,  still 
the  greater  the  good.  Let  the  way  be  what  it  will,  — 
we  shall  consider  that  presently,  —  the  result  is  in 
finitely  desirable :  to  have  the  habitual  feeling  of  God, 
our  Father,  and  of  living  as  his  affectionate,  obedient 
child.  "  Seek  ye  the  Lord." 

Come  to  the  second  fact:  this  feeling  is  to  be  had 
because  God  is  with  us.  He  is  not  far  off.  He  "  may 
be  found."  His  presence  is  perpetual,  universal.  Am 
I  to  stand  here  to  urge  the  Omnipresence  of  God? 
"We  may  be  far  off;  he  is  not.  He  abides  and  follows 
after.  He  remains  and  accompanies.  He  besets  us 
behind  and  before,  goes  with  us,  and  waits  for  us  where 
we  are  going,  lays  his  invisible  hand  upon  us,  —  and 
whither  shall  we  flee  from  that  presence?  He  dwells 
in  all  our  houses,  always  has,  always  will ;  and  when 
we  are  carried  out  of  them  not  long  hence,  to  be  buried, 
he  will  continue  there.  He  is  in  this  house,  but  not 
less  in  any  other  houses,  this  moment.  If  we  are  get 
ting  ready  an  answer  to  his  voice,  "  Go  work  to-day  in 
my  vineyard,"  he  knows  what  the  answer  is,  and  how 
much  it  is  worth.  If  we  are  silently  apologizing,  he 
weighs  the  excuse  in  as  just  a  balance  as  if  we  did 
it  aloud.  If  we  are  bracing  up  our  pride,  because  it  is 
uncomfortable  to  feel  self-accused  and  we  want  to  go 
12 


134  PERMANENT  REALITIES   OF  RELIGION,  AND 

on  in  the  old,  careless,  indulgent  way,  this  also  he 
sees.  If  when  we  go  away  we  turn  aside  the  edge  of 
his  truth,  so  mercifully  sharp,  that  searching  "  sword 
of  the  spirit,'7  because  it  hurts  our  bosom  sin,  or  threat 
ens  to  cut  into  some  pleasant,  wicked  habit,  —  if  we 
turn  it  aside  by  raising  foreign  questions,  or  finding 
fault  with  other  people's  way  of  acting,  or  fitting  the 
Divine  word  to  some  neighbor's  conscience,  —  that  is 
seen  by  him  who  sees  the  thoughts  when  most  anx 
iously  concealed.  What  a  boundless  blessing,  —  when 
we  are  so  easily  swayed  by  custom,  so  pliant  to  fashion, 
when  we  have  so  many  tricks  for  deceiving  each  other 
and  ourselves,  and  so  often  succeed,  or  are  succeeded 
with,  in  that  destructive  business,  —  that  there  is  One 
undeceivable,  One  always  knowing  us,  One  always  true, 
to  warn  us  from  the  most  disguised  and  subtle  sin ! 
When  we  turn  to  Him,  he  is  found.  When  we  call 
on  Him,  he  is  near.  This  is  the  second  fact,  the  second 
^element  in  the  reality  of  the  case.  And  to  feel  this 
also,  we  shall  agree,  is  an  incomparable  good. 

The  third  fact  is,  that  in  very  many  of  us  the  feeling 
has  not  been  so,  but  fearfully  otherwise.  There  is  a 
Past,  and  it  has  its  record.  No  man  can  read  it  for 
another ;  but  there  is  one  reader  of  it,  a  conscience,  in 
our  own  breasts,  that  is  far  more  to  be  dreaded  than 
any  person  outside  on  earth.  What  is  to  be  done  about 
that  Past  ?  If  there  were  no  memory,  and  no  law  con 
necting  past  and  present  and  future,  we  could  dispose  of 
it.  As  it  is,  we  are  aware  of  it,  inevitably.  We  see  it 
has  been  wrong,  bad,  foolish,  —  perhaps  so  self-absorbed 
and  prayerless  as  to  be  properly  called  "  without  God 
in  the  world."  The  thought  of  Him,  to  some  of  us, 
has  not  been  welcome,  or,  if  we  have  made  it  tolerable, 


TIMES   OP   SPECIAL  RELIGIOUS  INTEREST.  135 

it  has  been  only  by  trying  to  make  Him  such  an  one  as 
ourselves,  not  like  himself:  lenient,  not  holy;  indul 
gent,  not  consistent,  —  goodness  yielding  even  in  the 
high  spirit  of  the  Almighty.  For  a  Past  like  this  what 
will  be  the  best  ?  Will  it  not  be  forgiveness  ?  Both 
an  escape  out  of  sin,  and  out  of  the  burdened  feeling 
of  it?  A  free,  relieved,  joyful  mind?  Another  part 
of  the  reality  of  a  new  life:  the  New  Testament  full 
of  it :  Christianity  making  it  its  peculiar  truth :  thou 
sands  and  thousands  in  grateful  confession,  in  song 
and  praise,  in  volumes  and  in  secret  whispers,  Christen 
dom  through,  in  all  ages,  telling  of  that  reality.  "  To 
the  Lord,  for  he  will  have  mercy  upon  him,  and  to 
our  God,  for  he  will  abundantly  pardon." 

The  state  of  mind  that  leads  to  this  is  repentance, — 
a  fourth  great  good.  But  the  essence  of  repentance  is 
sorrow,  —  sorrow  for  our  sin.  Sorrow  is  painful,  and 
we  shrink  from  pain  ;  we  avoid  it.  To  those  that  have 
not  felt  the  evil  that  repentance  cures,  —  how  dark  and 
bitter  a  thing  it  is  to  be  away  from  God,  homeless, 
fatherless,  an  orphan,  and  made  so  by  selfish  ingrati 
tude,  —  to  those  it  will  not  seem  a  good.  It  is  a  good 
only  to  those  who  feel  the  evil  it  delivers  them  from, — 
the  nobler  peace  it  brings  them  to.  We  know  there 
is  one  thing  worse  than  pain :  the  painless  disease  that 
kills ;  the  slow,  insidious,  fatal  malady  that  eats  away 
the  springs  and  energies  of  life,  without  giving  the 
warnings  of  bodily  distress.  To  stop  that,  to  heal  that, 
we  gladly  go  in  search  of  pain.  We  tell  the  surgeon 
to  hurt  us  that  we  may  live.  Physical  vitality  is  often 
undermined  unconsciously.  To  avert  that  process  by 
a  pang,  by  a  period  of  needful  and  saving  agony,  we 
account  a  blessing.  After  the  first  stages  of  suffoca- 


136 

tion,  the  drowning,  on  their  own  testimony,  pass  into 
a  state  of  insensibility  to  suffering,  or  even,  as  many 
maintain,  of  positive'  and  exquisite  pleasure.  Adam 
Clarke,  who  went  through  it,  says,  in  his  autobiog 
raphy,  it  was  like  being  borne  gently  through  the 
most  luxurious  tropical  verdure,  —  the  keenest  enjoy 
ment.  And  when  this  swift,  easy  passage  to  destruc 
tion  is  interrupted,  and  friendship  applies  restoratives, 
there  are  spasms,  tortures ;  the  sufferer  begs  to  be  let 
alone,  to  die.  It  is  not  otherwise  with  the  spiritual 
sensibilities.  It  is  their  coming  back  from  death  to 
life  that  makes  distress.  But  no  wise  man,  only  the 
demented  man,  regrets  that  distress.  Paul,  with  his 
singular  exactness  of  expression,  says  that  the  sorrow 
that  is  unto  life,  the  price  of  living  forever,  needeth 
not  to  be  repented  of,  not  to  be  sorrowed  for.  The 
pain  that  rescues  life  is  a  good. 

Another  element  to  be  taken  into  view  is  the  sym 
pathetic  nature  of  man,  —  another  good.  So  far  as  we 
have  now  gone,  the  religious  work  might  proceed  in  the 
separate  individual,  —  for  he  could,  in  a  degree,  though 
a  fainter  one,  feel  his  relation  to  his  Ood,  feel  the  di 
rect  action  of  God's  spirit,  and  the  power  of  the  love 
that  forgives,  alone.  But  nature  has  not  constituted 
us  for  constant  solitude:  all  our  practical  sentiments 
gain  something  by  being  shared.  In  some  natures 
they  gain  immensely,  and  can  do  little  without  it.  In 
others  they  are  quickened,  revived.  Christianity,  whose 
entire  principle  is  love,  has  always  been  prompt  to  avail 
itself  of  this  natural  helper.  Every  meeting  for  devo 
tion  is  an  example  of  it.  Every  house  built  for  a  con 
gregation  of  worshippers  is  a  monument  to  it. 

The  living  church  itself,  the  repository  of  Christian 


TIMES  OF  SPECIAL  RELIGIOUS  INTEREST.  137 

truth  and  life,  is  a  collective  Body,  a  social  institution. 
Man's  social  nature  is  at  the  basis  of  it.  Some  men 
seek  such  sympathetic  encouragements  on  one  day  of 
the  week ;  others  find  a  still  farther  assistance  by  paus 
ing  in  their  business  and  turning  aside  for  instruc 
tion  or  refreshment  from  the  midst  of  temptation.  It 
is  not  a  matter  of  uniform  demand,  nor  of  canonical 
regulation.  If  we  are  free  beings,  and  natural,  some 
times  we  shall  ask  more,  sometimes  be  satisfied  with 
less.  It  is  not  because  God  is  ever  more  merciful, 
or  righteousness  ever  less  sacred.  It  results  from  the 
liberal  and  spontaneous  character  of  this  sympathetic 
part  of  our  nature.  We  are  not  tied  up  to  ceremonial 
rule ;  please  Heaven,  we  will  not  be  entangled  again 
with  any  such  yoke  of  bondage.  From  causes  we  can 
not  wholly  explain,  the  motions  of  men's  hearts  are 
unequal.  Every  idea  that  has  been  alive,  and  really 
stirred  the  world,  has  kindled  and  animated  its  ser 
vants  by  the  interaction  of  numbers  and  the  familiar 
stimulus  of  society.  Everybody  knows  this  force  needs 
to  be  guarded  and  limited ;  everybody,  who  really 
knows  anything  about  men,  knows  it  is  one  of  the 
beneficent  appointments  of  the  Maker  of  men. 

Added  to  this,  grafted  directly  upon  it,  is  the  power 
of  social  prayer.  And  certainly  no  one  who  has  had 
any  knowledge  in  himself  of  what  this  achieves,  what 
answers  it  brings,  doubts  that  it  is  a  good.  There  is 
much  in  all  prayer  that  passes  our  understanding.  It 
is  the  meeting-point  of  the  seen  and  unseen.  It  is 
the  border-land  between  earth  and  Heaven.  It  is  the 
contact  and  communion  of  finite  beings  with  the  Infi 
nite.  What  wonder  any  analysis  of  ours  should  fail 
to  unwind  all  its  mysteries  and  explain  all  its  divine 
12* 


138  PERMANENT  REALITIES   OF  RELIGION,  AND 

economy  ?  It  is  enough  that  wherever  religious  Wis 
dom  has  opened  its  lips  to  teach  anything,  it  has 
taught  this ;  enough  that  the  great  body  of  believing 
men  since  Christ,  if  we  may  not  say  since  the  begin 
ning,  have  proved  it;  that  all  Revelation,  calmly,  as 
by  prophetic,  unanxious,  assured  authority,  promises 
especial  blessings  to  it;  enough  that  Christ,  by  his 
example  and  by  his  lessons,  enjoins  it :  "  If  two  of 
you  on  earth  shall  agree  as  touching  anything  that 
they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done  for  them."  "  For  where 
two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  my  name,  there 
am  I  in  the  midst  of  them." 

Christ  made  his  religion  public ;  he  instituted  and 
practised  social  prayer.  In  our  sensitive  anxiety  to 
make  religion  private,  let  us  take  care  not  to  make  it 
so  very  private  that  it  shall  be  both  invisible  and 
impalpable,  depriving  it  of  all  those  immense  acces 
sions  of  power,  provided  for  in  human  nature,  which 
come  of  our  social  constitution.  With  many  among 
us,  it  has  long  been  the  favorite  and  the  noble  teach 
ing,  that  religion  —  which  is  surely  the  name  of  our 
intercourse  with  Heaven  —  should  not  stay  in  sanctua 
ries  and  Sabbaths,  but  go  out  into  the  highways  and 
markets.  At  last  she  has  gone  there,  and  lifted  up 
her  voice  by  the  way,  "  in  the  places  of  the  paths,"  in 
the  midst  of  toil  and  of  merchandise.  If  now  she  is 
bidden,  by  these  same  persons,  to  go  back  into  sanctu 
ary  and  Sabbath,  as  the  proper  sphere  of  her  dignity, 
or  to  "  move  on "  elsewhere,  what  shall  she  conclude 
but  that  she  is  not  very  cordially  wanted  anywhere  ? 

I  have  thus  mentioned  four  or  five  of  the  chief,  con 
trolling  ideas,  or  facts  rather,  which  must  be  active 
wherever  there  is  a  real,  living  interest  in  Christian 


TIMES  OF  SPECIAL  RELIGIOUS   INTEREST.  139 

Truth ;  wherever  there  is  a  general,  practical  obedience 
to  the  animating  words  of  the  text.  There  is  no  one 
of  them,  I  am  very  sure,  which  any  of  us,  in  a  moment 
of  deliberate  thought,  would  not  pronounce  a  solid, 
unquestionable  good,  even  though  his  will  should  hold 
back,  or  his  life  stumble,  or  his  heart  be  cold.  When 
we  strip  away  all  superficial  matters,  —  the  traditional 
language,  the  adventitious  impressions,  the  bad  names 
given  by  opposition,  the  real  blemishes  left  by  folly  or 
presumption,  —  these  are  what  remain,  as  the  elements 
of  a  true  religious  movement  in  a  community:  the 
feeling  of  God;  a  conviction  of  his  direct  presence 
and  action  on  the  soul ;  a  new  sense  of  the  want  of 
relief  from  transgression,  —  of  being  lifted  out  of  that 
lost,  orphaned  state,  and  forgiven,  and  taken  home,  — 
with  the  supply  of  that  relief  in  Christ  the  crucified, 
"  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world  ; "  the  activity  of  the  social  sympathies,  and  their 
enlistment  in  the  highest  of  all  our  possible  acts,  com 
munion  with  God,  seeking  both  greater  nearness  to 
Him,  and  spiritual  blessings  for  ourselves  and  each 
other  from  Him. 

Methods  are  all  secondary.  Whatever  way  leads  to 
that  result  is  a  royal  way,  honorable,  justified,  blessed. 
I  rejoice,  yea,  and  as  Paul  said,  will  rejoice,  in  every 
road  that  has  that  end.  To  make  religious  verities 
realities,  —  to  get  the  whole  subject  out  of  this  dim  or 
fantastic  nebulous  haze  where  it  hangs  before  so  many, 
to  bring  it  near  from  its  distance,  and  clear  from  its 
obscurity,  and  bright  from  its  vagueness,  and  strong 
from  its  weakness,  —  this  appears  to  me  the  one  thing 
needed.  For  when  religion  is  once  real,  it  will  be  all- 
commanding  and  all-attracting.  Let  me  pay  homage 


140 

to  and  make  room  for  all  sincere  measures  that  lead 
to  that ! 

II.  As  to  measures  in  operation  at  any  particular 
time,  we  shall  be  certain  to  hear  criticisms  and  objec 
tions.  The  whole  subject  of  religion  is  one  on  which 
those  that  have  convictions  are  sensitive,  and  those 
that  have  none  are  free-spoken.  The  individualism 
of  Protestants,  the  jealousy  of  Sectarists,  the  frigidity 
of  Rationalists,  all  have  their  protests.  Passions  too 
may  be  provoked  to  a  louder  remonstrance  than  all. 
Let  us  not  forget,  whichever  side  we  take,  that  the 
same  underlying,  all-essential  and  eternal  realities  re 
main,  and  remain  unchanged.  Still,  for  us,  the  voice 
of  Infinite  Goodness  will  say,  "  Seek  ye  the  Lord ;  seek 
him  now ;  repent ;  forsake  the  wicked  way ;  believe ; 
work;  be  faithful  unto  death."  The  threefold  ques 
tion  will  return,  and  keep  returning:  Is  it  possible 
to  love  our  Father  too  soon  ?  to  love  him  too  well  ? 
to  love  him  too  long  ?  And  that  other  threefold  ques 
tion  :  Is  not  the  Gospel  true  ?  Have  you  received  it, 
in  its  practical  power,  into  your  faith  ?  Is  there  any 
reason  why  you  should  not  take  it,  believe  it,  give 
thanks  for  it,  to-day? 

1.  Protests  are  made  against  religious  excitements. 
Excitements  are  of  different  kinds  and  degrees.  Ex 
citements  that  come  from  without  are  to  be  suspected. 
Excitements  that  are  due  to  the  senses  are  full  of  peril. 
Excitements  which  necessarily,  by  a  law  of  nature, 
must  be  followed  by  a  reaction  into  apathy,  are  hurt 
ful.  These  statements  are  past  question,  and  need 
not  be  oracularly  put  forth  every  day  as  discoveries. 
Indifference  so  stolid  that  man,  made  to  love  God  and 


TIMES   OP   SPECIAL   RELIGIOUS   INTEREST.  141 

goodness  with  all  his  heart,  cannot  abide  in  it,  but  has 
to  be  excited  out  of  it,  is  also  suspicious.  A  coolness 
so  complacent  that  it  must  be  broken  up  by  a  wrench 
of  repentance,  is  also  full  of  peril.  Your  worldly  un 
belief  is  hurtful.  We  have  to  set  off  exposures  and 
dangers  against  each  other,  in  this  world,  and  find  the 
safe  way,  or  the  way  of  salvation,  by  coming  as  quickly 
as  we  can  to  our  Guide.  We  shall  probably  estimate 
the  harm  of  religious  fervor  very  much  according  to 
our  relative  estimate  of  the  importance  of  religion  it 
self.  Men  are  least  apprehensive  of  too  much  feeling 
where  they  love  most ;  and  some  who  have  little  fear 
of  excess  in  pleasure-seeking,  in  a  gay  season,  in  social 
brilliancy,  in  business,  counting  all  days  or  nights  and 
all  companies  and  all  energies  suitable  for  them,  ap 
pear  to  be  nervously  afraid  if  a  few  unusual  hours 
in  a  week  are  given  up  to  devotion ;  to  converse  with 
our  Maker ;  to  counsels  for  the  object  for  which  Christ 
gave  his  life ;  to  the  free  unlocking  of  those  grand, 
commanding  affections  and  aspirations  in  us,  through 
which  all  principles  of  justice  and  mercy  for  men  grow, 
and  which  more  than  anything  else  determine  duty ; 
to  that  life  which  is  to  go  on  when  all  of  this  world 
has  vanished  from  us,  and  go  on  to  eternity.  Mean 
time,  we  see  a  general  religious  movement  working 
about  us,  differing,  I  should  think  all  of  us  must  con 
fess,  from  many  that  have  gone  before,  in  its  freedom 
from  fanaticism,  in  the  general  quietness  of  its  opera 
tion  and  calmness  of  its  temper. 

2.  It  is  inquired,  fairly  enough,  whether  the  phrase 
ology  of  special  religious  movements  imputes  caprice 
to  the  Supreme  Being,  —  coming  and  going  to  the 
Ever-present,  varying  moods  to  the  Unchangeable,  de- 


142  PERMANENT   REALITIES   OF  RELIGION,    AND 

grees  of  nearness  to  Him  who  is  closer  than  the  air, 
nay,  always  in  us,  the  life  of  our  life,  —  every  power 
and  breath  and  consciousness  dependent  on  his  being 
there.  A  fair  enough  question  of  phraseology,  and 
to  be  thoughtfully  regarded.  But  even  when  the  lan 
guage  is  mistaken,  we  shall  not  surely  so  grossly  or 
wantonly  misconstrue  one  another,  as  to  suppose  that 
the  error  reaches  in  from  language  to  thought,  and 
that,  in  their  actual  conceptions  of  Him,  any  class  of 
Christians  contemplate  God  as  local,  or  itinerant,  or 
fickle.  If  anything  in  sectarian  misrepresentation  were 
incredible,  we  should  say  it  is  incredible  that  any  per 
son,  most  of  all  any  preacher,  with  any  sense  of  profes 
sional  responsibility,  or  even  of  the  common  responsi 
bility  of  veracity,  and  with  competent  information  for 
public  speech,  should  allege  of  any  considerable  por 
tion  of  his  fellow-Christians,  in  this  age,  and  in  this 
land,  that  they  disbelieve  in  the  Omnipresence  of  God. 
The  truth  is,  every  call  to  repentance  that  now  fills 
the  air  presupposes  the  liveliest  and  the  firmest  faith  in 
that  omnipresence.  It  says,  "  Seek,  ask,  pray,"  every 
where,  continually,  to  all  alike.  It  never  says,  You 
may  not  seek,  you  must  not  ask,  it  is  useless  to  pray. 
Of  course,  the  belief  that  the  Almighty  Spirit  is  every 
where  and  always  present,  is  universal.  There  is  no 
exception.  To  affirm  the  contrary  of  any  order  of 
Christian  people  is  a  wicked  absurdity,  known  as  de 
nominational  bigotry  in  the  church,  but  in  the  world 
as  slander. 

Beyond  this,  and  notwithstanding  this,  it  is  true, 
there  is  a  frequent  fault  of  expression,  chiefly  for  the 
reason  that  language,  which  is  the  medium  of  finite 
natures,  is  inadequate  to  contain  and  convey  the  facts 


TIMES   OF   SPECIAL   RELIGIOUS   INTEREST.  143 

of  an  Infinite  Being,  or  even,  very  accurately,  our 
highest  views  of  him.  So  there  is  weakness ;  there  is 
ambiguity ;  and  not  -seldom  there  is,  in  all  of  us  alike 
probably,  carelessness.  We  have  to  shape  our  images 
according  to  human  models,  a  good  deal ;  and  so  we 
humanize  the  Deity,  —  we  represent  him  under  the  fig 
ures  of  human  life.  All  religious  expression  has  done 
so  from  the  first.  The  Bible  habitually  does  so ;  ordi 
nary  speech  does,  —  especially  as  it  grows  earnestly 
poetic,  or  earnestly  practical.  The  fervent  feeling  takes 
the  first  graphic  term  that  comes,  which  is  apt  to  be 
very  human ;  —  reverence  would  gain  by  more  care. 
But  it  is  plain  enough,  to  all  but  blinded  and  angry 
partisans,  that  when  men  speak  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as 
here  in  distinction  from  there,  as  present  and  absent, 
as  near  or  far,  they  mean  something  actual ;  they  mean 
just  what  the  Wise  and  Holy  Scripture  means,  when,  in 
it,  the  pious  Patriarch  says,  "  Behold,  the  Lord  was  in 
this  place,  and  I  knew  it  not ; "  what  Moses  and  the 
Prophets  mean  when  they  say  the  Lord  "  passed  by," 
or  "  came  from  Teman ; "  what  the  text  means  when 
it  says,  "  Seek  ye  the  Lord,  while  he  may  be  found, — 
while  he  is  near ;  "  —  because,  let  critical  nicety  and  cap 
tious  philology  prescribe  what  rules  they  will,  the  fact 
is  that  there  are  times  when  God  is  more  easily  found, 
his  gift  of  life  more  readily  gained,  and  when  if  not 
gained  it  is  missed  altogether,  so  that  there  is  a  "  now," 
and  an  "  accepted  time ; "  what  the  Apostle  James 
means  when  he  says,  "  Draw  nigh  to  God,  and  he 
will  draw  nigh  to  you ; "  nay,  what  the  Son  of  God 
himself,  who  alone  "  knoweth  the  Father,"  and  "  saith 
true,"  means,  when  he  declares,  "  The  kingdom  of 
God  is  come  nigh  unto  you."  Do  you  imagine  these 


144  PERMANENT  REALITIES   OF  RELIGION,  AND 

teachers,  because  they  used  these  words,  believed  the 
God  they  loved  and  worshipped  to  be  only  occasion 
ally  present  anywhere  ?  An  unworthy  and  an  igno 
rant  cavil. 

3.  There  are  indiscretions,  we  hear.     No  doubt  of 
it.     The  question  is,  whether  the  indiscretions  are  so 
many,  and  so  glaring,  as  to  overbalance  the  palpable 
and  lasting  good  that  comes  of  engaging  many  people 
heartily  in  the  new  conviction  that  they  have  a  spirit 
ual,  immortal  capacity,  and   owe  their  lives  to  their 
Creator.     When  we  have  governments  without  indis 
cretion,  families  without  indiscretion,  colleges  without 
indiscretion,  manners,  trade,  navigation,  over  any  sort 
of  sea,  without  it,  we  shall  have  an  administration  of 
Christianity  without  indiscretion.     But,  remember,  the 
greatest  indiscretion  we  can  possibly  fall  into  about  re 
ligion  is  to  let  it  alone. 

4.  It  is  said,  the  eager  demonstrations  that  attend 
strong  religious  movements  disgust  the  "  cultivated  and 
refined."     Men  have  even  been  found  saying  this  who 
are  not  usually  over-forward  to  appear  as  the  advocates 
or  patrons  of  these  particular  classes,  —  who  have  gen 
erally  found  in  them,  in  fact,  only  a  spirit  of  selfish 
aristocracy  and  a  conservative  anti-Christ,  but  now,  all 
at  once,  by  "  sudden  conversion,"  are  jealous  for  their 
scruples.     Doubtless,  there  is   such  a  thing  as  a  high 
Christian  expediency.     Thought  is  to  be  taken  for  the 
weak  conscience,  for  the  fastidious  taste,  and  even,  I 
think,  sometimes  for  the  narrow  prejudice.      Christian 
ity  is  broad  enough,  generous  enough,  strong  enough, 
for  that.     Paul  expounds  that  law  in  the  fourteenth 
chapter   to   the   Romans,  and  acts   upon  it  wherever 
lie  becomes    "  all  things  to   all  men  that  he  might 


TIMES  OP  SPECIAL  RELIGIOUS  INTEREST.  145 

gain  the  more."  Religion  wants  the  intrusion  of  no 
impertinent  appointments,  and  no  bad  manners.  That 
complete  Apostolic  gentleman,  just  referred  to,  knew 
very  well  the  need  of  the  precept,  when  he  directed 
the  Corinthians  that  "  all  things  should  be  done  de 
cently  and  in  order ;  "  yet  he  was  certainly  the  central 
and  animating  figure  in  many  a  scene  quite  as  "  ex 
cited  "  and  "  exciting "  as  any  witnessed  this  year 
among  us.  Christian  wisdom  will  deprecate  any  viola 
tions  of  true  dignity  or  decorum,  will  carefully  forestall 
them,  —  the  ranting  appeal,  the  rude  phrase,  the  dis 
tasteful  arithmetic  definiteness,  the  publicity  and  prema 
turity  in  computing  converts,  the  vulgar  interruptions. 
Our  God  is  a  "lover  of  concord"  in  forms  and  sounds 
and  seasons  and  colors  and  ceremonials,  as  in  the  tem 
per  and  disposition  of  men,  and  "  he  hath  made  every 
thing  beautiful  in  his  time."  But  nothing  is  so  "  beauti 
ful  "  in  his  sight  as  the  heart  that  trusts  and  loves  him. 
He  has  made  the  laws  of  fitness  and  of  grace  to  be 
steadfast  and  sacred;  but  he  tells  us  that  all  the  out 
ward  graces  of  propriety  and  art  are  but  dim  symbols 
of  the  clustering  group  of  spiritual  graces  that  his  own 
immediate  Spirit  makes  to  bud  and  unfold  and  yield 
their  ripened  fruitage,  in  the  believing  soul  of  man : 
that  to  hasten  now,  in  the  accepted  time,  to  present 
our  bodies  a  "  living  sacrifice,"  is  a  most  "  reasonable 
service;"  and  that  all  the  "fitness  he  require th"  is 
to  "  feel  our  need  of  him." 

We  have  to  remember  that  the  "  cultivated  and  re 
fined  "  are  to  be  considered,  just  because  culture  and 
refinement  are  a  positive  good,  and  because  every 
human  being  is  to  be  considered.  Christianity  says, 
"  Honor  all  men."  But  something,  in  turn,  must  be 

13 


146  PERMANENT  REALITIES   OP  RELIGION,   AND 

asked  of  these  well-bred  persons,  and  something  must 
be  expected  of  intelligence.  Among  other  things,  it 
is  expected  intelligence  will  consider  the  variety  of 
adaptations,  the  limits  of  occasion,  the  pressures  of 
emotion,  the  fallibility  of  human  understandings,  the 
adventitious  disfigurements  that  attach  to  the  noblest 
works,  and  consider  how  gloriously,  blessedly  true  it 
is,  that  while  there  are  "  diversities  of  operation  "  there 
is  "  the  same  spirit,"  and  while  there  are  "  differences 
of  administration,"  there  is  "  the  same  Lord." 

If,  when  the  actual  blemishes  are  put  away,  or  only 
a  few  are  left,  and  these  so  insignificant  as  not  to  be 
appreciable  beside  the  grand  earnestness  overshadow 
ing  them,  —  as  in  these  days   generally  happens,  —  if 
then,  still,  the  cultivated  and  refined  are  repelled  from 
a  large  blessing  or  duty  by  a  trivial  indiscretion,  that 
will   be   something  for  the   cultivated   and   refined  to 
look  to.     A  positive,  aggressive  Faith,  like  the  Gospel 
of  Christ,  has   too   much   to  do   to  stop   and   smooth 
away  every  little   human  roughness  from  its   rugged 
reformations.     Prophets  that  are  full  of  the  preaching 
of  repentance  and  a  new  kingdom  will  sometimes  wear 
camel's  hair  instead  of  broadcloth,  and  a  leathern  girdle 
instead  of  fine  linen,  and  we  must  get  used  to  it  as  we 
can.     There  is  such  a  thing  as  an  overweening  pride 
in  the  knowledge  of  this  world,  which  shuts  the  spirit 
ual  sense.     There  is  a  disproportionate  zeal  for  the  ad 
vantages  and  splendors  of  a  material  civilization,  whicl 
hides  the  loftier  glory  of  the  skies.     "  Not  many  wise 
not  many  mighty."    "  They   have   their  reward."     Ii 
that  day  of  simple,  spiritual  revelation,  when  the  secret; 
of  all  hearts  shall  be  revealed,  all  earthly  distinction; 
levelled,  and  all  ranks  and  badges  forgotten,  the  ques 


TIMES   OP   SPECIAL   RELIGIOUS   INTEREST.  147 

tion  shall  not  be,  Who  was  highest,  who  lowest  ?  who 
richest  or  who  most  beautiful  ?  who  cultivated  alone, 
or  refined  alone  ?  But,  Who  loved  God  and  man, 
who  honored  the  right,  who  was  loyal  to  truth,  who 
lived  and  walked  in  the  spirit,  who  had  faith  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  out  of  that  faith,  as  towards 
Christ  himself,  did  minister  to  those  hungry,  athirst, 
naked,  strangers,  sick,  in  prison  ?  So,  many  that  are 
here  first  shall  be  last,  and  the  last  first.  It  was  when 
the  Saviour  had  placed  the  favored  children  of  light 
and  opportunity  below  the  infamous  idolaters,  Chorazin 
and  Bethsaida  below  Tyre  and  Sidon,  proud  Caper 
naum  below  perished  Sodom,  that  he  calmly  lifted 
up  hjs  eyes  to  heaven  and  adored  the  wondrous,  equal 
izing  mystery :  "I  thank  thee,  0  Father,  Lord  of 
Heaven  and  Earth,  that  thou  hast  hid  these  things 
from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them 
unto  babes." 

By  some  inwrought  principle  of  a  free  being,  any 
unusually  vivid,  searching  truth  that  meets  him  alters 
his  position.  Truth  turns  aside  for  no  man ;  he  is 
instantly  obliged  to  take  some  attitude  towards  it ;  it 
not  only  measures,  but  it  places  him.  So  it  comes 
about,  that  the  waking  up  into  extraordinary  activity 
of  a  social  religious  sentiment  separates,  inevitably, 
those  whose  natures  are  in  opposite  relations  to  it. 
Put  any  great  moral  idea  into  any  community,  and  it 
will  instantly  divide  asunder  the  receivers  and  reject 
ers.  The  very  touch  of  a  forcible,  reformatory,  inno 
vating,  reviving  influence  or  doctrine,  is  a  universal 
power  of  discrimination ;  it  polarizes  all  minds ;  it 
sends  each  "  to  his  own  place."  The  ultimation  of 
that  dividing  process  by  the  one  radical  and  decisive 


148  PERMANENT  REALITIES   OF  RELIGION,   AND 

question  will  be  the  Last  Judgment ;  and  this  dividing 
process  no  amiability,  no  diplomacy,  no  caution  nor 
compromise  nor  legitimate  charity,  can  wholly  pre 
vent.  We  are  to  avoid  that  result  where  we  honestly 
can ;  but  neither  honesty,  nor  candor,  nor  prudence, 
can  escape  it  always :  Christ  found  it  so,  and  declared 
it.  "  It  must  needs  be  that  offences  come."  "  I  am 
come  to  send  fire  on  the  earth,  and  what  will  I  if  it  be 
already  kindled  ?  "  It  was  a  fire  of  love,  but  the  terrible 
transmutation  of  mortal  selfishness  turned  it  to  hate.  "  I 
came  not  to  send  peace,  but  a  sword ; "  "  separating 
child  from  parent,  brother  from  brother,  making  a 
man's  foes  to  be  those  of  his  own  hoiisehold."  Yet 
none  the  less  was  his  spirit  peaceful,  his  aim  reconcilia 
tion,  the  church  he  was  to  found  a  Brotherhood.  Sin 
is  the  base  magician  that  so  turns  the  truth  of  God 
into  a  lie,  and  the  compassion  of  Christ  into  a  strife. 
But  truth  cannot  keep  itself  back,  Christ  cease  to  be 
preached,  zeal  refrain  from  running  and  urging  men 
to  be  saved,  according  to  the  Great  Commission.  Right 
and  wrong  cannot  really  be  reconciled,  nor  take  each 
other's  seats.  Light  and  darkness  cannot  mix,  nor  both 
retire.  Blessing  and  cursing  cannot  mean  the  same 
thing,  if  they  do  come  from  the  same  mouth.  Gerizim 
and  Ebal  cannot  wheel  on  to  each  other's  bases,  nor 
sink  their  peaks  into  the  plain. 

So  the  outbreak  of  uncommon  religious  earnestness 
will  probably  stir  up,  in  some  quarters,  the  worst  ele 
ments  of  human  nature.  The  scoffers,  if  there  are 
any,  will  redouble  their  ribaldry.  The  jesters,  who, 
in  their  sad  struggle  between  God's  purpose  for  them 
and  their  own  folly,  make  life  a  ghastly  burlesque, 
will  discover  material  for  caricature  or  scurrility.  If 


TIMES   OF  SPECIAL  RELIGIOUS   INTEREST.  149 

there  is  a  clerical  banterer  anywhere,  who  seasons  his 
generous  exhortations  to  rectitude,  for  flagging  appe 
tites,  with  slurs  and  sneers,  he  will  find  the  tempta 
tions  to  special  smartness  too  much  for  him,  and  inter 
mix,  in  unusual  proportions,  raillery  with  religion,  low 
comedy  with  lessons  in  virtue,  irreverence  with  maxims 
of  moral  progress.  All  this  will  not  seriously  interrupt 
the  Almighty,  nor  hinder  Truth,  nor  affright  the  deeper 
intuitions  of  man.  More  probably  it  will  serve  to  ex 
pose  the  exigences  of  a  Christless  theology,  show  how 
a  denying  habit  vulgarizes  at  last  both  intellectual  self- 
respect  and  a  chaste  heart,  and,  by  making  the  excess 
of  offence  disgusting,  correct  its  own  damage. 

5.  It  is  said  a  social  religious  interest  is  made  de 
pendent  on  "  machinery,"  is  "  manufactured."  Dis 
tinguish  again  between  two  kinds  of  machinery.  In 
its  own  place,  machinery  is  held  very  far  from  being 
an  evil.  Kept  to  its  use,  nobody  objects.  If  brought 
in  to  do  what  can  be  done,  at  last,  only  by  the  free, 
unforced  choice  of  the  spiritual  nature,  it  is  mischievous 
utterly.  If  it  is  thrust  out  of  its  sphere,  to  obstruct 
or  to  dishonor  the  higher  motions  of  the  conscience 
and  tire  affections,  it  is  still  a  mischief.  If  by  machinery 
you  only  signify  outward  means  to  achieve  an  inward 
result,  or  visible  measures  to  arrest  and  engage  volun 
tary  attention  to  a  great  truth,  you  will  not  willingly 
discredit  it.  All  moral  and  spiritual  improvements  are 
carried  forward  by  such  means.  Every  institution  is 
such  a  means ;  the  meeting-house ;  the  vestry ;  the 
stated  assembly;  the  order  of  exercises  in  worship; 
personal  appeals  to  man's  religious  sensibility ;  the 
serious  letter  you  write  to  a  friend  in  temptation; 
ordinances ;  pictures  on  church  walls  ;  the  bells  that 

13* 


150  PERMANENT   REALITIES   OF   RELIGION,   AND 

shake  the  air.  You  do  not  stigmatize  these  as  "  ma 
chinery,"  and  for  the  reason  that  they  are  fit,  and 
are  familiar.  What  other  instruments  are  fit  will  be 
a  matter  of  individual  construction  ;  there  is  no  law, 
no  code ;  only  let  it  be  a  generous  construction.  It 
does  seem  strange  that  a  wide-spread  spirit  of  relig 
ious  inquiry  and  resolve,  appearing  simultaneously  in 
all  parts  of  a  vast  country,  not  suggested  by  a  priest 
hood,  but  often  encountering  clerical  opposition,  pro 
ceeding  almost  wholly  by  unpremeditated  operation, 
having  simple  and  unlettered  prayers  for  its  chief  utter 
ance  and  aliment,  —  thus  as  purely  spontaneous,  or 
rather  bearing  as  many  traces  of  a  divine  origin,  as 
any  authenticated  reformation,  —  that  this  should  be 
held  up  to  reprobation  as  the  article  of  a  crafty  "  manu 
facture."  You  might  as  well  say  that  the  forests  of 
Mt.  Washington,  or  the  freshets  of  the  rivers,  or  the 
American  Revolution,  were  got  up  by  manufacture. 
When  you  hear  men  speaking,  and  see  them  laboring, 
unpaid,  often  unthanked,  with  sincerity  in  every  look 
and  tone,  to  persuade  their  fellows  to  accept  some 
blessing,  simply  because  it  is  a  blessing,  whether  your 
tastes  accord  or  not,  you  are  not  apt  to  suppose  they 
are  acted  by  machinery,  nor  engaged  in  a  manufac 
ture.  What  shall  be  thought  of  the  knowledge  of 
affairs,  the  insight  into  human  nature,  the  scientific 
reading  of  phenomena,  that  come  to  that  impotent  con 
clusion?  It  will  be  happy  for  us,  brethren,  I  think, 
if  we  are  not  all  painfully  reminded  of  those  words 
of  sorrow  and  dread,  which  speak  of  a  "  despite  to 
the  Spirit  of  grace,"  and  a  "quenching"  of  it,  and 
of  the  woe  pronounced  on  words  uttered  against  the 
Holy  Ghost  out  of  a  state  wilfully  wedded  to  self  and 
to  past  opinion. 


TIMES  OP   SPECIAL  RELIGIOUS  INTEREST.  151 

6.  It  is  the  character  of  vivid  experiences,  we  are 
told,  to  be  temporary,  —  which  is  partly  true  and  partly 
not.  The  vividness  may  be  temporary,  and  the  feel 
ing,  or  still  better  the  principle  which  the  feeling  helps 
to  warm  and  foster,  may  be  permanent.  That  depends 
on  the  individual's  fidelity,  or  fixedness  of  purpose. 
If  he  lets  it  go,  he  has  shame  and  self-contempt  for 
his  portion ;  if  he  consistently  holds  fast  the  principle, 
as  we  would  fain  believe,  and  must  believe  by  the  facts 
in  a  large  preponderance  of  cases,  then  he  thanks 
God  for  the  unspeakable  peace  to  the  end  of  his  earthly 
days  and  forever. 

Distinguish  also  between  the  proper  transientness  of 
one  process,  and  the  proper  permanency  of  another. 
To  come  out  of  insensibility  —  and  it  will  not  be  de 
nied  some  persons  are  in  that  state  —  is  transient;  to 
remain  interested,  and  go  on,  and  live  accordingly,  is 
permanent.  To  object  to  the  former  that  it  is  tran 
sient,  would  be  just  as  unreasonable  as  to  object  to 
the  latter  that  it  is  permanent.  It  is  in  the  nature  of 
the  thing,  and  cannot  be  otherwise.  As  has  been  well 
observed,  the  object  of  waking  up  is  to  be  awake ;  and 
we  do  not  object  to  the  means  of  waking,  that  the  per 
son  is  not  expected  to  be  waking  up  all  the  time.  The 
questions  are :  "  Is  he  asleep,  and  is  it  better  to  be 
awake  ? "  Perhaps  he  will  not  be  the  less  likely  to 
keep  awake,  because  he  awakes  suddenly.  We  do  not 
criticise  the  morning  bell  which  rouses  us  to  our  work, 
that  it  does  not  ring  all  day.  One  thing  is  wanted  to 
open  our  faculties,  and  another  to  keep  them  at  their 
task.  The  first  will  avail  little  without  the  other; 
but  you  never  discredit  the  first  because  it  does  not 
do  the  work  of  the  other.  Conversion  is  the  opening 


152  PERMANENT   REALITIES   OF   RELIGION,   AND 

of  the  spiritual  faculty,  or  sight,  to  Christ,  the  Light 
of  the  world. 

Plentiful  analogies  occur  for  this  variation  of  move 
ment  in  the  other  chief  interests  of  man,  and  in  nature 
herself,  whose  order  is  indisputable.  In  the  business 
of  legislation,  there  is  a  certain  period  —  a  few  weeks 
of  the  year  —  when  legislators  devote  a  special  atten 
tion  to  the  State  and  the  Statutes.  They  hold  meet 
ings  from  day  to  day,  and  are  engaged,  sometimes 
excited,  in  adjusting  the  claims  of  the  people.  After 
they  adjourn  and  separate,  the  government,  thus  re 
vived  and  reinforced,  goes  on ;  the  statutes  quietly 
do  their  work ;  the  results  are  permanent,  and  nobody 
wonders  that  the  assemblies  are  not  in  session  all  the 
year.  In  education,  special  seasons  are  set  apart  for 
waking  up  the  intellectual  faculty,  and  getting  it  in 
working  order;  lessons,  libraries,  lectures,  apparatus, 
machinery,  fulfil  this  office ;  and  the  rest  of  life  is 
spent  in  putting  what  has  been  gained  of  mental  life 
or  power  to  practical  use.  Our  men  of  science  hold 
a  "protracted  meeting"  of  several  days  every  year. 
If  any  new  enterprise,  like  a  new  facility  for  travel 
across  the  country,  is  to  be  achieved,  you  hear  of 
special  meetings,  measures,  till  the  community  are 
"  waked  up,"  as  we  say,  to  the  importance  of  the 
undertaking.  Nobody  is  afraid  of  a  reaction.  The 
demonstrations  of  feeling  cease,  or  are  changed.  There 
is  still  interest,  and  still  feeling.  Only  the  propor 
tions  or  methods  of  expression  are  altered.  Prepara 
tion  gives  place  to  the  work,  and  leads  to  it.  "Waking 
up  is  followed  by  organization,  regularity  of  labor.  It 
is  according  to  human  nature.  It  is  according  to  the 
best  philosophy  of  human  life.  We  are  not  always 


TIMES   OF   SPECIAL  RELIGIOUS   INTEREST.  153 

alike ;  yet  this  does  not  necessarily  imply  any  abate 
ment  of  real  energy.  We  are  creatures  of  many  moods, 
faculties,  and  members  ;  a  liberal  interpretation  of  man 
and  society  and  truth  bids  us  believe  that  God  in  his 
great  plan  has  room  for  all.  In  the  stated  and  gracious 
succession  into  which  the  Church  has  distributed  the 
Christian  year,  respect  is  paid  to  the  same  principle 
in  the  alternation  of  Fasts  and  Feasts,  each  with  its 
appropriate  emotions.  The  natural  year  itself  is  re 
viving.  All  around  us,  in  ten  thousand  signs  of  new 
and  exuberant  animation,  over  all  the  fields  and  hill 
sides  and  meadows,  it  is  budding  and  blossoming  into 
verdure  and  beauty.  Among  the  branches  of  trees, 
in  the  choirs  and  orchestras  of  woods  and  orchards, 
on  the  banks  of  loosened  streams,  you  will  hear  the 
voices  of  this  "  time  of  refreshing  from  the  presence 
of  the  Lord."  The  feet  of  spring  are  beautiful  upon 
the  mountains,  and  these  glad  or  growing  creatures 
of  God  break  forth  into  the  singing  of  their  uncon 
scious  revival  hymns.  Nor  will  any  censures  hold 
against  these  marvellous  and  divine  renewings,  be 
cause  after  they  are  complete,  and  leaf  and  fruit  stand 
in  their  finished  glory,  spring  passes  into  summer,  and 
the  grand  maturity  comes  on  in  a  more  silent  strength. 

Nay,  our  Lord  and  Redeemer  himself  had  one  ad 
vent  ;  the  wilderness  of  the  world  bloomed  but  once 
for  his  coming;  the  isles  of  the  south  awake  once,  at 
his  call ;  he  rises  once  from  the  dead.  Yet  he  liveth 
evermore,  and  the  soul  that  is  risen  indeed  with  him, 
and  is  awake  to  his  righteousness,  walks  with  him, 
and  hath  an  eternal  life  abiding  within. 

Ever  since  the  church  was  founded,  it  has  had  its 
times  of  peculiar  demonstrative  activity.  During  the 


154  PERMANENT  REALITIES   OF  RELIGION,   AND 

intervals  it  may  not  always  have  had  less  power  than 
in  those  days  of  its  waking  and  reawaking;  but  it 
certainly  had  greater  power  for  them.  Church  history 
opens,  in  the  second  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
with  an  account  of  a  notable  revival,  —  a  Pentecostal  out 
pouring  of  the  Spirit.  In  the  patristic  period  Chris 
tianity  was  revived  in  many  countries,  sometimes  on 
new  fields,  planting  its  heavenly  seed  on  fresh  earthly 
soil,  but  sometimes  on  itself,  putting  new  life  into  the 
old  forms,  new  blood  into  the  old  body.  So  in  the 
Catholic  ages  Christianity  was  often  revived  through 
the  missionaries  and  the  mystics.  It  was  revived 
through  Luther  and  Huss.  It  was  revived  through 
Wycliffe,  through  the  Anglican  Fathers,  through  the 
pious  Puritans,  through  the  Wesleys  and  their  fiery- 
hearted  friends.  The  Holy  Spirit  has  roused,  directed, 
blessed  believers,  and  thus  borne  forward  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  among  men.  If  there  is  any  class,  any  sect, 
any  community,  any  single  soul  that  may  take  the 
posture  of  consistent,  clear,  thorough  objection,  it  seems 
to  me  it  is  only  that  one  which  is  sure  it  does  not  need 
more  faith  and  righteousness  than  it  has;  and  that 
one  can  object  only  for  itself;  and  finally  that  one,  in 
its  poor  complacency,  will  need  reviving  most  of  all. 

The  appeal  to  personal  experience  is  instructive. 
Looking  back  at  the  beginnings  of  their  efforts,  most 
Christians  see  that  the  first  strong  impression  was  un 
expected,  had  a  certain  mystery  in  it;  many  will  re 
member  that  it  had  a  marked  character.  The  man 
"came  to  himself,"  all  at  once  perhaps.  Why  not? 
Some  new  event,  at  the  Spirit's  touch,  let  in,  in  a 
moment,  a  light  not  seen  before,  as  when  the  shutters 
of  a  dark  room  are  thrown  open  to  the  sun.  That 


TIMES   OF   SPECIAL  KELIGIOUS   INTEREST.  155 

"faith  iii  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  out  of  which  all 
just  works  and  noble  dispositions  will  proceed,  is  awak 
ened.  To  pretend  that  they  have  thus  proceeded  al 
ready,  or  that  the  building  of  character  is  done,  or 
that  the  soul  is  safe  without  further  exertions,  would 
be  absurd,  and  worse. 

7.  The  virtue  of  liberality  is  implicated,  as  has  more 
than  once  been  already  implied,  —  and  the  more  so  as 
the  spirit  of  the  religious  interest  abroad  is  itself  singu 
larly  liberal,  comparatively  free  from  dogmatic  debates 
or  denunciations,  from  sectarian  exclusiveness,  from 
narrow  definitions  or  inclosures.  There  may  be  those 
who  do  not  see  how  to  join  in  these  public  acts,  and 
honestly  believe  that,  for  them,  this  is  not  the  best  way 
to 'promote  the  religion  of  Christ.  If  they  therefore 
despise,  or  misjudge,  or  misrepresent  their  differing 
brethren,  ascribing  to  them  other  doctrines  than  they 
teach,  or  errors  they  do  not  commit,  they  only  transfer 
the  disrepute  of  bigotry  from  those  they  abuse  to  them 
selves,  whom  they  abuse  worst  of  all. 

No  man,  it  seems  to  me,  who  looks  largely  over  the 
facts  and  the  phenomena  of  the  Christian  World,  can 
dare  to  insist  that  all  mankind  shall  take  one  outward 
path  to  Heaven.  If  he  does,  it  will  be  a  dangerous 
symptom  that  he  is  not  quite  in  it  himself.  The  in 
ward  path  must  be  essentially  the  same  for  all.  There 
is  but  one  DOOR.  "  By  me,"  Christ  said,  "  enter  in ; " 
"  I  am  the  door."  But  the  ways  that  lead  to  the  door, 
with  slighter  or  greater  divergence  from  each  other, 
reach  out,  at  last,  over  all  the  intellectual  territory  of 
the  great  continent  of  humanity.  Who  shall  say  his 
alone  leads  to  the  Door?  Who  shall  not  rejoice  to 
believe  that  through  them  all  pilgrims  are  pressing 


156  PERMANENT  REALITIES   OF  RELIGION,   AND 

on,  sincerely,  patiently,  humbly,  with  hope,  with  faith, 
that  they  may  enter  ?  "  Now,  when  the  pilgrims  were 
come  up  to  the  Gate,  there  was  written  over  it,  in  letters 
of  gold,  6  Blessed  are  they  that  do  his  commandments, 
that  they  may  have  right  to  the  tree  of  Life,  and  may 
enter  in  through  the  gates  into  the  city.' '  "  And  now 
abideth  faith,  hope,  charity.  But  the  greatest  of  these 
is  charity.''  Read  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  chapters 
of  Paul's  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  and  you  will 
see  that  he  was  before  any  modern  theologian  in  setting 
the  grace  of  Christian  Love  above  any  "  gifts  "  of  heal 
ing,  of  tongues,  of  interpretation,  of  miracle,  of  proph 
ecy,  —  actual  as  they  were. 

As  with  the  ways,  so  with  the  agents.  They  are 
various  as  the  materials  of  the  universe,  the  forms 
of  being,  the  motions  of  the  mind.  God  has  honored 
both  the  obscurest  and  the  weakest  instruments,  and 
highly  exalted  them,  and  made  them  "  confound  the 
mighty."  If  many  have  been  led  to  trust  and  serve 
him  by  great  Christian  eloquence,  others  by  broken 
petitions,  or  stammering  remonstrances,  or  a  single 
word,  —  as  when  John  Bunyan,  dissolute  and  hardened, 
overheard  a  poor  unlettered  woman  praying  in  secret, 
and  was  turned  by  it  to  pray  himself,  —  or  as  when 
young  Malcom,  at  Brown  University,  was  kindly  told 
by  one  of  his  teachers  to  "  make  one  honest  effort 
for  his  soul's  sake,"  went  to  his  room,  and  locked 
it,  and  thought  of  that  expression,  — "  one  honest 
effort,"  —  till  he  came  out  the  new  man  whose  name 
is  now  revered  and  beloved  by  hundreds,  thankful  for 
his  fidelity.  If  some  by  vast  events,  held  up  before  the 
eyes  of  nations,  in  the  tempest,  the  fire,  and  the  earth 
quake,  others  by  the  still  small  voice,  —  as  when  an 


TIMES   OF   SPECIAL  RELIGIOUS   INTEREST.  157 

eminent  modern  apostle,  lately  gone  up  from  the 
world,*  was  first  really  touched,  as  he  afterwards  said, 
by  hearing  the  president  of  the  college  where  he  studied, 
in  one  of  the  daily  prayers,  repeat  that  tender  prophecy 
of  Isaiah,  "  A  bruised  reed  shall  he  not  break  and 
the  smoking  flax  shall  he  not  quench."  Some  by 
terrible  things,  seen  or  heard,  like  John  Newton  by 
a  storm  at  sea,  like  Chief  Justice  Hale  by  seeing  a 
companion  fall  dead  in  the  intoxication  of  a  convivial 
entertainment,  or  like  the  Christian  Emperor  who  was 
awakened  to  Christian  sensibility  by  thinking  of  the 
miseries  he  had  caused  in  his  battles ;  but  others  by 
some  sweet  memory  or  meditation,  like  Sarah  Martin, 
the  devout  philanthropist,  who  first  had  the  Christian 
love  kindled  in  her  heart  by  the  remorse  that  fol 
lowed  the  telling  of  a  childish  falsehood ;  or  like 
a  young  American  scholar,  who  never  believed  in  the 
God  of  Revelation,  till  one  day,  when  he  was  hearing 
a  recitation  on  the  Copernican  system  of  astronomy, 
suddenly  he  saw  him  the  Builder  of  the  solar  order, 
balancing  the  stars  in  his  wisdom,  and  saw  him  for 
ever  after.  Sometimes  the  Spirit  makes  even  the  least 
congenial  scenes  his  ministers,  as  when  a  young  man 
I  knew  of,  just  entering  a  place  of  revelry,  an  hour 
after  midnight,  heard  the  clock  strike  one.  It  brought 
instantly  to  his  mind  words  he  had  once  read.  • 

"  The  bell  strikes  one,  —  we  take  no  note  of  time 
But  from  its  loss.     If  heard  aright, 
It  is  the  knell  of  my  departed  hours. 
"Where  are  they  ?  " 

And  that  course  of  sober  thinking,  beginning  with 


*  Dr.  Taylor. 
14 


158 


the  bell's  note,  ran  on  till  it  condensed  into  the  Chris 
tian  purpose  that  controlled  the  rest  of  his  life.  These 
are  facts.  We  all  feel  them,  as  we  hear  them,  to  be 
reasonable,  natural,  beneficent.  Who  shall  doubt  that 
in  all  the  sights  and  sounds  we  meet  God  sets  signals 
for  us  to  seek  him  ?  As  soon  should  we  be  at  liberty 
to  doubt  His  presence  in  the  world,  to  blot  out  the 
majesty  of  His  religion  from  our  life,  to  unbind  its 
laws  of  responsibility  from  our  consciences,  to  reject 
its  immortal  consolation  from  our  sorrows. 

From  these  suggestions,  I  am  obliged  to  believe  that 
—  laying  all  particular  mistakes  and  local  extrava 
gances  out  of  view  —  the  occurrence  of  special  seasons 
of  religious  interest  rests  on  principles  as  indisputable, 
as  close  to  science,  as  natural,  as  any  known  to  us ;  — 
the  supremacy  of  the  religious  element  in  man ;  the 
immediateness  of  the  Divine  Spirit ;  the  unity  of  an 
ascendant,  governing  motive  in  the  soul;  the  possi 
bility,  at  least,  of  a  direct  transition  from  one  to  an 
other,  or  a  change  of  mind  (perdvoia)  leading  to  a 
newness  of  life  (jTra\Ljyevea-ia)  •  the  social  susceptibility 
to  impression ;  the  spiritual  suggestiveness  of  common 
objects  to  a  spiritual  mind. 

The  theology  of  a  real  revival  is  a  very  simple  matter. 
It  is  in  three  words.  It  is  Christ's  "  Come  unto  me." 
".  Come  to  Christ,"  —  that  you  find  is  the  prevalent  watch 
word,  call,  creed.  That  is  the  theology.  If  you  choose 
to  distribute  it,  you  find  it  contains  these  principal 
truths :  the  gracious  activity  of  the  Spirit  of  God ; 
the  indifference,  unbelief,  sin,  of  men ;  the  merciful 
and  all-sufficient  approach  of  God  to  men  in  the  Per 
son  of  Christ,  the  Redeemer,  with  overture,  invitations, 
inspirations,  sacrifice,  —  everything  to  draw  men  to  a 


TIMES  OF  SPECIAL  EELIGIOUS  INTEREST.  159 

new  and  holy  life  and  save  them,  —  in  Him  whose 
name  is  "  the  only  name  given  under  Heaven,  among 
men,  whereby  they  can  be  saved."  The  entire  move 
ment  emphasizes  the  efficiency  of  means,  and  so  dis 
credits  any  notion  that  could  put  the  Divine  Grace 
into  contradiction  with  human  freedom.  Its  one  ques 
tion  is  precisely  Christ's  question :  "  What  shall  it  profit 
a  man,  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own 
soul  ?  "  Undoubtedly,  denominational  interpretations 
modify  this  comprehensive  theology  ;  but  they  are  every 
where  subordinate.  Does  it  betray  a  very  cordial  sym 
pathy  with  the  Saviour's  own  purpose,  when  differences 
are  so  far  forgotten,  and  hearts  are  taken  up  into  the 
glowing,  harmonizing  air  of  devotion,  to  interpose  a 
polemical  discussion  ?  Will  a  practical  and  ardent  zeal 
for  the  Saviour's  own  "  love  of  souls  "  take  just  then  the 
direction  of  a  controversial  commentary  on  opinions  ? 

But  the  harm  is  not  great.  If  here  and  there  some 
thin,  discordant  note  is  heard,  it  is  soon  lost  in  the 
resounding  praises  that  arise  from  the  dwellings  and 
churches  of  a  nation.  The  mighty  sweep  of  holy  feel 
ing,  impelled  by  the  hand  of  Heaven,  bears  down  the 
expostulations  of  a  fastidious  brain.  The  wind  blow- 
eth  where  it  listeth.  Men,  and  women,  and  young 
children,  having  in  them  the  peace  and  joy  of  God, 
are  not  to  be  much  disturbed.  Already,  their  acclama 
tions  ascend,  from  the  north  and  the  south,  from  the 
east  and  the  west,  from  the  city  and  the  village,  from 
the  lonely  chamber  and  the  great  congregation.  In 
the  stately  sanctuary  you  catch  their  majestic  melo 
dies  in  the  ancient  "  Gloria  in  Excelsis,"  sung  with 
grander  trust.  In  unnumbered  companies  that  gather 
in  plainer  courts,  —  places  of  every  worldly  use  turned 


160  PERMANENT   REALITIES   OF   RELIGION,   AND 

to  temples  by  sudden,  solemn,  and  glad  dedications,  — 
you  hear  "  Worthy  the  Lamb  that  was  slain ! "  In 
closets  and  secret  chambers,  where  God  alone  listens, 
he  hears  the  broken  confession,  —  "  This  only  I  know, 
that  whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  see."  "  Nothing  shall 
be  able  to  separate  me  from  this  love  of  God,  which 
passeth  knowledge." 

III.  If  now  we  return  to  the  positive  teaching  of 
the  text,  we  shall  see  that  it  contains  for  us,  for  all 
men,  three  things,  with  results. 

First,  The  presence  of  the  Spirit.  On  that  fact  de 
pends  all  the  good,  all  the  joy,  all  the  glory  of  man 
kind.  On  the  feeling  and  confession  of  it  depends  all 
high  and  strong  excellence.  Man's  greatest  and  most 
blessed  hour  is  when  he  wakes  into  the  living  con 
sciousness  of  this,  becomes  aware  of  his  spiritual  rela 
tions  and  his  immortal  destiny,  ceases  to  live  in  himself 
and  for  himself,  stretches  his  thought  and  affection  to 
the  Infinite  and  Holy  One  that  inhabiteth  eternity,  and 
then,  through  him,  to  all  souls  of  men  having  the  same 
Father,  however  weak,  dark,  erring,  sinning.  That 
is  the  one  great  good,  for  every  human  soul.  It  is 
possible  for  all ;  God  is  always  "  near,"  never  afar. 
The  "  now  "  is  for  us ;  the  "  while  "  is  for  us.  These 
are  human  conditions.  The  will  is  free.  For  us  there 
are  "  times  "  and  "  seasons,"  and,  as  every  day  of  life 
in  all  its  interests  shows,  if  we  fail  then  we  may  fail 
utterly.  But  in  his  own  unchanging  compassion,  the 
Holy  Spirit  always  "  may  be  found."  To  the  prophet 
God  had  not  been  manifest,  outwardly,  in  the  Christ. 
Now,  in  him  God  has  come.  "  Come  unto  me." 
"  "Whosoever  will,  let  him  come." 


TIMES   OF   SPECIAL   RELIGIOUS  INTEREST.  161 

Secondly,  there  is,  for  men,  a  possible  absence  from 
God ;  not  of  God  from  men,  but  of  men  from  God.  So 
our  speech  feebly  and  falteringly  shapes  the  truth.  God 
may  be  near  to  us  and  we  not  near  to  him.  An  unfelt 
presence  is  no  life  nor  comfort.  It  is  a  silent  form 
near  us  in  the  dark.  Sin  is  that  distance.  Moral  dis 
agreement  is  a  thicker  and  higher  barrier  than  moun 
tains,  or  the  stellar  spaces.  To  be  indifferent,  where 
trust  and  love  should  be,  is  absence ;  and  that,  remem 
ber,  is  no  single  deed, — it  is  a  state;  God  is  not 
"found"  in  it,  not  "sought." 

The  third  thing  is  an  act  of  man's,  accepting  the 
ceaseless  act  and  offer  of  the  Spirit,  co-working  with 
it,  to  bring  these  two  together ;  God's  presence,  man's 
practical  consciousness  of  it ;  seeking  and  finding.  It 
is  the  opening  of  the  spiritual  sense.  It  is  the  renun 
ciation  of  that  proud  self-will  that  has  kept  it  shut. 
It  is  the  changing  of  the  soul's  state.  It  is  regenera 
tion.  It  is  a  new  creature.  It  is  a  different  heart. 
There  is  another  motive,  and  so  another  life.  It  is  of 
God  himself,  in  man.  Acceptance  in  the  one  of  grace 
in  the  other.  Faith  answers  to  the  promise.  How 
swiftly  the  homeward  way  is  passed  over!  Penitent 
affection  is  eager,  and  the  Father  is  waiting.  There 
are  conditions,  favorable  and  unfavorable.  There  is 
an  accepted  time,  a  day  of  salvation ;  a  "  financial 
crisis,"  if  you  please ;  which  is  sometimes  suggested 
as  the  whole  explanation  of  ten  times  ten  thousand 
better  hearts !  Only  remember,  behind  the  "  financial 
crisis  "  there  is  the  Eternal  Spirit,  working,  inviting. 
Yes,  a  "financial  crisis,"  —  in  other  words,  enough  of 
the  "  husks  that  the  swine  did  eat ; "  an  hour  of  thought, 
a  broken  constitution,  an  opened  grave  ;  but  how  much 


162  PERMANENT   REALITIES   OF   RELIGION,   AND 

better  if  it  is  the  joy  of  youth,  the  still  persuasion  of 
prosperity,  and  the  bounding  pulse  of  grateful  health, 
or  the  manly  voice  of  Christian  invitation,  "  the  good 
ness  that  leadeth  to  repentance  "  !  You  may  suggest 
that  people  meet  to  pray  because  they  have  leisure, 
"nothing  else  to  do."  But  it  is  a  new  thing  in  the 
world,  if  idleness  alone,  with  all  the  modern  appliances 
for  filling  up  vacant  hours  in  great  cities,  should  crowd 
strong,  shrewd  men  into  plain  rooms,  to  entreat  spirit 
ual  blessings  on  themselves  and  one  another,  with  every 
token  of  urgent  sincerity  in  look  and  tone.  There  is 
no  shorter  way  of  explaining  that,  I  think,  judging 
it  by  its  fruits,  than  to  say,  our  God  is  in  it.  Manifold, 
mysterious,  merciful  are  these  calls  and  ways  of  God. 
He  has  made  the  universe  wide  enough,  and  the  human 
soul  various  enough,  for  them  all. 

The  result  will  be  twofold ;  the  two  parts  of  charac 
ter.  Character  may  have  yet  scarcely  begun  to  be 
formed.  That  is  a  labor  remaining.  But  there  has 
been  planted  the  forming  principle.  "  The  wicked 
will  forsake  his  way,  and  the  unrighteous  man  his 
thoughts." 

There  will  be  a  harmony  of  the  affections  with  the 
Divine  Spirit.  There  will  be  the  hidden  life,  ever 
nourished  by  prayer,  ever  making  prayer  more  real. 
Its  deep  peace  is  indestructible,  passing  knowledge,  not 
given  by  the  world's  wealth,  not  taken  away  by  the 
world's  robberies  or  reproaches.  This  is  piety.  It  is 
the  habitual  and  ever-growing  consciousness  of  dwell 
ing  with  the  Father  in  Heaven.  It  is  the  power  of 
being  forgiven.  "  Unto  the  Lord,  for  he  will  have 
mercy  upon  him."  It  is  the  wonderful  admission  to  a 
yet  more  intimate  and  personal  endearment :  "  And  to 
ovr  God,  for  he  will  abundantly  pardon." 


TIMES   OP   SPECIAL  RELIGIOUS   INTEREST.  163 

There  will  be  a  life  consecrated  to  righteousness ; 
morality ;  only  a  morality  warmed,  expanded,  deep 
ened,  by  the  spirit  of  Christ,  the  love  of  God.  Not  a 
drudging  bondage  to  the  legalist's  commandments ; 
not  a  frigid  compliance  with  the  literalist's  rule.  Every 
beneficent  and  generous  duty  will  take  its  place  of 
honor,  but  more  as  privilege  than  as  duty.  Religion 
will  be  the  natural  inspiration  of  conduct,  not  because 
it  is  some  volatile  and  graceful  sentiment,  nor  the  mere 
instinct  of  happy  lovers  and  fond  mothers,  but  the 
grounded  principle  of  Eight,  —  law  eternal  underneath 
it,  a  Personal  Maker  above  it ;  the  fruit  of  a  profound 
experience  ;  the  offspring  of  law  and  love  reconciled 
in  the  Gospel ;  the  steadfast  righteousness  in  Christ, 
to  which  the  Law,  as  a  schoolmaster,  had  led.  No  task 
will  be  too  heavy,  no  sacrifice  too  bitter,  no  human 
being  too  base  or  ugly  or  far  away,  for  the  zeal  of  this 
convert  and  disciple,  made  an  heir  of  Heaven  and 
the  brother  of  the  race.  Every  slave's  oppression,  every 
wronged  sufferer,  every  unjust  practice  in  business, 
every  impurity  in  society,  every  onesidedness  in  edu 
cation,  every  falsehood  in  institutions,  will  be  his  solemn 
and  intense  concern,  for  he  follows  Him  who  gave  his 
life  for  the  least.  "  Right  feeling,  right  thinking,  right 
acting,  right  being,"  will  all  be  his,  more  and  more, 
because  "  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus 
hath  made  him  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death." 

Of  all  the  instances  of  awakening  religious  life  lately 
reported,  none  carry  such  power  of  impression  as  those 
where  the  new  feeling  of  obligation  to  God  has  been 
attended,  from  the  very  beginning,  with  a  new  feel 
ing  of  duty  to  man  ;  where  the  reform  of  practice  has 
kept  pace  with  the  growth  of  faith ;  or  more  even 


164  PERMANENT  REALITIES  OF  RELIGION,   AND 

than  this,  where  the  convert  has  felt  that  he  could  not 
go  a  step  in  religious  regeneration  without  first  putting 
himself  right,  wherever  he  was  wrong,  with  his  neigh 
bors.  Hear  a  parable,  yet  a  true  story,  —  one  of  a 
class  that  might  be  told  here  all  night.  Not  fifteen 
furlongs  from  where  we  are,  and  not  long  ago,  a  certain 
man,  who  had  repeatedly  and  openly  avowed  himself 
a  disbeliever  in  Christianity,  in  worship,  and  in  the 
very  being  of  a  God,  —  of  active  powers,  large  intelli 
gence,  and  an  average  conscience,  —  began  to  see  the 
truth  he  had  so  long  kept  covered  up.  He  began  to 
believe  himself  mistaken,  and  to  think  that  God,  and 
the  law  of  God,  and  Revelation,  and  the  Future  Life, 
might  be  realities,  after  all.  It  was  borne  in  strongly, 
irresistibly ;  he  hardly  knew  how,  except  as  he  did 
know  and  see  that  it  was  through  the  sympathies  and 
intercessions  of  some  about  him  that  he  loved  and 
trusted.  He  was  troubled  to  agony.  Such  inward 
revolutions  as  that  do  not  come  about  without  strain 
ing  the  sensitive  parts  of  the  soul,  breaking  up  the 
frozen  fountains  of  penitence  and  self-reproach,  and 
shaking  the  whole  nature  with  pain.  Dealing  quite 
honestly  with  himself,  he  went  into  solitude  and  prayed. 
He  prayed  only  this,  that  if  there  was  a  God,  he  might 
know  and  believe  in  Him.  He  prayed  rather  into  the 
wide  heavens  than  to  a  Heavenly  Father.  But,  after 
this  first  and  single  act  towards  his  Maker,  he  said : 
"  I  know  little  yet  of  religion  ;  there  is  evidently  some 
thing  here  I  never  dreamed  of  yet ;  but  if  I  am  going 
to  pray  to  God,  I  must  settle  my  difficulties  with  my 
fellow-man.  There  is  my  former  partner  in  business, 
whom  I  quarrelled  with  a  year  ago,  and  whom  I  have 
been  hating  ever  since  ;  the  first  thing  for  me  to  do 


TIMES   OF   SPECIAL   RELIGIOUS   INTEREST.  165 

now  is  to  go  and  confess  my  wrong,  and  be  at  peace 
with  him.  No  more  prayers,  till  that  is  done ;  no 
falsities  left  behind ;  no  sins  reserved  ;  a  clean  begin 
ning  or  no  religion."  He  went  to  his  partner,  and 
was  forgiven,  and  forgave.  He  went  to  his  God,  and 
was  sure  he  was  forgiven  there ;  and  then  he  went  on, 
into  a  sound,  consistent,  spiritual  life.  Old  things 
passed  away,  and  all  things  became  new.  This  is 
Christianity.  It  is  Christ's  spirit  of  sincerity,  courage, 
truth,  faith.  We  do  not  often  see  a  more  literal  com 
pliance  with  the  Saviour's  own  direction :  "  If  thou 
bringest  thy  gift  to  the  altar,  and  there  rememberest 
that  thy  brother  hath  aught  against  thee,  leave  there 
thy  gift  before  the  altar,  and  go  thy  way :  first  be 
reconciled  to  thy  brother,  and  then  come  and  offer 
thy  'gift"  Let  us  remember  the  latter  clause,  no  less 
than  the  first.  It  was  coming  to  the  altar,  to  the 
prayer,  that  first  made  this  man  feel  compelled  to  go 
to  his  offended  brother.  It  was  going  there  that  made 
him  ready  to  go  back  to  worship :  here,  as  everywhere, 
faith  and  works  proceeding  together,  each  helping  the 
other:  repentance  toward  God  quickening  the  con 
science;  conscience,  obeyed,  opening  the  temple-door 
of  devotion. 

God  grant  to  his  church  ever  new,  deeper,  more 
genuine  revivals  of  pure  and  undefiled  religion !  May 
he  pour  out  his  spirit  upon  all  flesh,  in  other  Pente- 
costs,  on  every  barren  place,  every  cold  church,  every 
unprofitable  heart!  As  the  rain  cometh  down  from 
heaven,  and  returneth  not  thither,  but  water eth  the 
earth  and  maketh  it  bring  forth  and  bud,  so  may  the 
living  word  be,  that  goeth  forth  out  of  his  mouth ! 
Again,  and  again,  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  these 


166 


PERMANENT  REALITIES   OP  RELIGION,   ETC. 


wildernesses  of  passion,  and  care,  and  sin,  "  Repent !  " 
Again,  and  again,  may  the  Son  of  Man  come  in  power 
and  great  glory!  Till,  in  all  of  us,  and  all  around  us, 
and  all  over  the  earth,  "  instead  of  the  thorn  shall  come 
up  the  fir-tree,  and  instead  of  the  briar  the  myrtle- 
tree,  to  be  to  the  Lord  for  an  everlasting  sign  that 
shall  not  be  cut  off." 


SERMON    IX. 

PEACE  BY  POWER. 

THE   MOUNTAINS   SHALL  BRING  PEACE.  —  Ps.  Ixxli.  3. 

WHAT  is  to  be  noticed  in  this  metaphor  is,  that  it  pro 
poses  an  unusual  view  of  the  conditions  of  peace.  In 
itself  a  mere  image  in  the  mind  of  a  poet,  reflected 
there  in  a  study  of  natural  scenery,  it  is  hardly  less  the 
declaration  of  a  principle  of  moral  and  spiritual  life, 
carried  out  into  the  material  world  for  an  illustration. 

"  The  mountains  shall  bring  peace."  Commonly,  we 
expect  impressions  of  tranquillity  in  the  lowlier  places 
of  a  landscape,  where  the  objects  are  so  minute  as  to  stir 
no  effort  in  the  mind,  and  the  place  is  so  level  as  to  lift- 
it  in  no  upward  movement.  Enclosed  valleys,  with  limits 
easily  reached  by  the  eye  and  restraining  rather  than 
tempting  any  bold  imagination,  smooth  and  flower-sprin 
kled  plains,  or  green  meadows  and  still  waters,  —  these 
are  thought  to  represent  the  moods  of  repose,  and  per- 
liaps  to  produce  them.  Instead  of  this,  but  with  a  sense 
}f  real  effects  quite  as  true,  the  writer  of  this  Hebrew 
Dde  finds  the  peaceful  in  the  grand,  —  rest  in  greatness, 
[f  we  have  ever  felt  that  the  sight  of  high  hills,  with 
strong  outlines  and  broad  reaches,  recruited  us,  that 
here  was  intellectual  refreshment  in  a  wide  horizon, 


168  PEACE   BY   POWER. 

we  shall  have  all  that  is  necessary  to  make  the  figure  a 
fit  introduction  to  our  doctrine  and  its  argument. 

This  doctrine  is,  that  the  quiet  of  the  human  soul  is 
to  be  honestly  found,  not  in  descending  to  its  lower  or 
less  forcible  states,  but  in  the  freedom  of  its  highest  quali 
ties,  and  through  its  stronger  exercises  :  or,  that  Chris 
tian  peace  is  an  attainment  of  the  spiritual  energies,  and 
not  a  mere  acquiescence  in  inferiority. 

The  positive  results  of  this  conviction,  in  awakening 
action  and  giving  a  healthy  inspiration  to  the  will,  as  well 
as  our  liability  to  leave  it  for  less  invigorating  notions, 
will  lead  me  first  to  put  forward  some  general  illustra 
tions  of  it,  and  then  to  connect  it  with  the  personal  con 
cerns  of  character. 

When  the  Saviour  speaks  of  the  ultimate  result  of  his 
religion,  in  the  single  heart  or  in  the  world,  he  calls  it 
Peace :  "  Peace  I  leave  with  you  ;  my  peace  I  give  unto 
you."  But  as  soon  as  you  look  into  the  spirit  and  relations 
of  his  words,  you  see  that  in  this  peace  there  is  some 
thing  quite  peculiar.  It  is  no  wonder  he  emphasizes  the 
pronoun,  and  says,  "  My  peace."  It  is  a  peace  obtained 
by  the  drops  of  blood  and  the  cross ;  Gethsemane  and- 
Calvary  ;  by  a  life  in  which  there  was  no  place  to  lay  the 
head.  It  is  not  a  mere  constitutional,  negative,  nor  any 
superficial  peace  ;  it  is  not  what  we  call  pleasure,  nor  a 
happy  temperament,  nor  gratified  sensibilities,  nor  sa 
tiated  appetites.  It  is  something  deeper  and  stronger. 
It  is  an  attainment ;  it  is  a  victory ;  it  is  tribulation 
overcome.  It  is  the  mightiest  powers  of  our  nature  bal 
anced,  reconciled,  and  harmonized  at  last,  through  w6 
know  not  what  struggles  and  sufferings,  till,  by  the  per 
fect  sway  of  one  supreme  principle  of  faith,  there  are  the 
equipoise  and  serenity  that  pass  all  understanding. 


PEACE   BY   POWER.  169 

So  long  as  mankind  put  up  their  first  prayers  for  hap 
piness,  they  need  to  learn  that  power  of  character  is  before 
happiness,  and  indispensable  to  any  joy  that  is  Christian. 
We  are  to  be  suspicious  of  effeminate  contentments. 
Christianity  has  to  suffer  cruelly,  not  only  from  its  open 
deniers,  and  its  merely  nominal  adherents,  but  from  the 
needless  imbecilities  of  its  sincere  disciples,  —  if  moral 
weakness  can  ever  be  called  very  sincere.  Plenty  of 
infirmities  will  remain,  at  our  best ;  but  we  are  not  to 
make  room  for  them,  and  domesticate  them,  by  the 
vicious  theory  that  it  is  enough  to  subside  into  a  nerve 
less  placidity,  imagining  that  God  is  indulgent  instead 
of  kind,  finding  food  for  our  complacency  in  the  fond 
ness  of  Heaven,  and  substituting  a  harmless  routine  of 
easy  virtues  for  the  originality  and  valor  of  a  great 
hearted  faith.  One  of  our  most  insidious  temptations 
is  to  mistake  a  comfortable  deadening  of  aspiration  for 
Christian  assurance  ;  and  of  the  two  possible  sorts  of 
satisfaction,  viz.  raising  the  soul  to  its  objects,  and 
quenching  its  nobler  desires,  accepting  the  last.  Some 
people  think  if  they  are  calm,  at  ease,  and  especially 
if  their  serenity  has  a  pensive  or  sentimental  color, 
no  matter  about  their  strength.  But  no  man  who  is  not 
as  strong  as  he  can  be,  and  making  himself  stronger  in  a 
piety  that  is  muscular  and  adventurous,  is  really  right 
eous.  Our  religion  to-day  wants  red  blood  and  thick 
sinews.  It  wants  the  spirit  of  the  hills  in  it.  Bodily 
health  and  genius  are  commonly  reckoned  as  gifts,  and 
blessings  only  in  that  meaning ;  but  in  another  sense 
they  are  both  duties,  as  the  parables  of  the  steward  and 
the  talents  prove.  And  it  is  so  with  all  the  greater 
attributes  of  the  soul. 

We  are  apt  to  keep  up  in  the  mind  —  tacitly,  at  least 

15 


170  PEACE   BY   POWEK. 

—  a  faithless  alternative  between  goodness  and  greatness : 
the  fallacy  being  that  these  two  do  not  bear  to  each  other 
any  relation  of  comparison,  since  each  is  an  element  of 
the  other.  Their  righteousness  is  the  greatest  thing  in 
the  really  great ;  and  by  just  so  much  as  goodness  lacks 
greatness,  or  strong  qualities,  it  comes  short  of  being 
divinely  good.  As  surely  as  God  meant  each  spirit  of  his 
children  to  be  a  completely-developed  instance,  with  all 
the  capacities  fulfilled,  there  can  be  no  feeble  saints ; 
their  feebleness  is  just  so  much  abridgment  of  their 
saintliness.  Nor  is  there  any  comfort  in  this  for  gifted 
sinners.  They  naturally  make  the  mental  and  social 
traits  their  first  standard  of  judgment,  and  have  their 
little  sneer  accordingly  ;  but  the  infirmity  of  the  irre 
ligious  is  always  really  deeper  than  that  of  the  good, 
since  it  is  infirmity  at  that  inmost  point  of  man,  where 
he  was  made  to  be  strongest,  where  he  was  to  touch 
God  and  eternity,  and  where  disease  debilitates  the 
whole  constitution  with  the  deadliest  certainty. 

Taking  a  little  further  assistance  from  the  image  of 
the  text,  the  three  obvious  attributes  of  mountains  are 
elevation,  magnitude,  permanency.  They  are  measured 
by  their  height ;  their  most  obvious  impression  on  the 
eye  is  that  of  size,  or  majesty ;  and  among  the  muta 
bilities  of  the  globe  they  are  the  most  enduring,  being 
described  as  ancient,  lasting,  and  even  everlasting. 
Out  of  these  three  several  characters,  in  their  natural 
combination,  and  only  rounded  a  little  into  the  curves  of 
time  and  weather,  comes,  as  the  Psalmist  felt,  and  as  most 
of  us  have  felt  in  looking  at  them,  an  influence  of  peace. 
It  will  be  no  harm  if  we  transfer  this  simple  analysis  in 
its  terms  to  our  subject.  In  just  such  attributes  of 
strength  human  character,  also,  is  to  find  its  moral  bal- 


PEACE    BY   POWER.  171 

ance,  its  real  peace,  viz.  in  its  aspiration,  its  large 
ness,  its  constancy.  Man  is  high  with  his  devotional 
affections,  his  prayers  ;  wide  with  his  practical  prin 
ciples,  and  steadfast  with  his  convictions.  Or,  he  is 
high  with  his  spirit,  wide  with  his  will,  and  steadfast 
with  his  reason.  With  these  three  properly  adjusted, 
you  will  have  a  general  effect  of  serenity ;  because  such 
a  man  will  live  in  a  certain  equipoise  within  himself, 
centred  and  completed  according  to  the  grand  designs 
of  his  Creator,  as  a  creature  belonging  both  to  the  world 
and  heaven.  He  reaches  up  into  the  infinite  mystery 
that  broods  like  a  sea  of  conscious  life  above  him.  He 
reaches  out,  in  all  liberal  fellowships,  to  mankind,  with 
a  love  that  cannot  narrow  into  hatred  nor  be  fretted  into 
war  ;  and  he  rests  firmly  on  eternal  foundations.  And 
thus,  on  all  sides,  —  God-ward,  and  man-ward,  and  self- 
ward, —  so  far  as  man  can,  he  resides  in  the  securities  of 
a  well-defended  peace ;  he  is  castled  in  the  kingdom  of 
his  own  tranquillity,  safe  from  the  changes  of  the  time, 
and  from  the  fear  of  change  to  come.  He  is  "  set 
fast  like  the  mountains,  being  girded  with  power." 

And  the  same  causes  that  make  him  strong  in  this 
empire  of  rest  within  himself  ordain  him  to  exert  un 
consciously  the  same  influence  on  others,  rendering  him 
a  natural  peacemaker  in  society  ;  for,  as  has  been  said, 
"  mountains  are  to  the  body  of  the  earth  what  muscu 
lar  action  is  to  the  body  of  man." 

Spiritual  serenity,  then,  is  spiritual  strength.  It 
comes  in  by  no  softness  of  sentiment,  but  by  thorough 
work.  It  comes  by  a  faith  that  emboldens  and  energizes 
the  whole  soul,  a  penitence  that  searches  and  strains  it, 
and  often  a  secret  fight  of  afflictions.  Christianity  is  a 
robust  religion.  It  was  planted  in  the  world  by  a  race  of 


172  PEACE  BY  POWER. 

heroes.  Its  great  starts  forward,  into  new  continents  and 
epochs,  have  been  made  through  martyrdoms.  The  blood 
of  sacrifice  has  watered  its  roots.  Men  of  easy  systems 
wonder  and  cavil  at  all  this  sacrifice  and  crucifixion,  and 
call  it  a  "  blood-theology  ;  "  but  they  sneer  at  the  highest 
glory  of  earth  and  heaven,  which  is  voluntary  sacrifice 
for  love,  —  much  as  you  hear  languid  fops  criticise  the 
fanaticism  of  the  Puritans,  that  conquered  for  them,  out 
of  the  jaws  of  the  wilderness,  the  inheritance  where 
they  lounge  and  sprinkle  rose-water.  As  the  mountains 
bring  peace,  the  sublimity  of  the  Christian  ideas  tran 
quillizes.  That  Faith  insists  that  we  shall  be  brave  men, 
in  order  to  be  peaceable  men ;  that  the  people  of  God 
shall  work,  even  as  the  Father  worked,  to  obtain  the 
rest  that  rcmaineth  for  them;  that  they  shall  strive, 
through  a  strait  gate  and  a  narrow  way,  to  enter  in 
where  are  pleasures  forevermore.  Those  three  moun 
tain-attributes  must  appertain  to  their  piety  :  height  of 
spirit,  reaching  in  worship  toward  the  throne  of  God ; 
amplitude  of  affection,  in  whose  abounding  charity  all 
the  landscapes  of  the  earth  shall  lodge  ;  and  constancy  in 
all  the  integrities  and  purities  of  a  consecrated  life. 
Then  will  be  the  peace  that  passeth  all  understanding, 
the  peace  of  the  Son  of  God. 

In  their  natural  organization,  both  men  and  moun 
tains  have  roots.  Of  both,  the  deepest  or  primary  for 
mations  often  appear  at  the  summit.  These  huge  tel 
luric  pyramids  are  not  mere  masses  laid  in  dead  weight 
upon  the  surface  of  the  earth  ;  but  are  the  protrusion 
of  its  own  energies,  organized  parts  of  itself,  discoveries 
or  features  of  its  internal  forces,  and  so  the  springing 
expression  of  its  passion  and  power. 

Take  any  one  of  these  three  traits  just  mentioned 


PEACE   BY   POWER.  173 

away,  and,  besides  what  other  ruin  you  make,  you  most 
disastrously  disturb  the  peace.  Take  away  the  aspir 
ing  faith,  rob  yourself  of  religion,  and  then  all  those 
implanted  instincts  of  other  worlds,  which  were  meant 
for  faith  to  guide  and  satisfy,  become  the  haunting 
terrors  of  superstition.  Shorn  of  its  high  commerce 
with  the  Unseen,  the  degraded  mind  shrinks  with  fear 
from  what  its  providential  intuitions  warn  it  must  yet 
be,  and  trembles  to  die  because  it  has  not  found  what 
makes  it  sacred  and  lofty  to  live.  There  is  no  peace 
there,  but  the  misery  of  weakness.  Take  away  the 
large  confidence  of  a  round-about  and  generous  hu 
manity  :  you  mar  all  peace  again  by  that  littleness,  for 
other  men  will  be  either  hated,  or  suspected,  or  envied, 
or  feared.  Take  away  the  constancy :  you  have  vacilla 
tion,  uncertainty,  yieldings,  capitulations,  and  whatever 
brings  confusion  and  pain,  with  total  loss  of  peace.  On 
whichever  side  you  enfeeble  man,  you  unbalance  and 
torture  him. 

Proceed  to  some  examples,  in  other  regions  of  life, 
how  peace  depends  on  power,  how  the  gentler  traits 
are  upheld  by  the  braver,  and  all  noble  joy  comes  of 
energy. 

In  literary  expression,  the  effect  of  pathos  is  finest 
in  thinkers  habitually  severe.  What  saves  sentiment 
from  sentimentality  is  the  feeling  of  a  firm  intellectual 
fibre  through  the  emotion.  The  lighter  mental  move 
ments  are  most  sure  of  respect  where  they  adorn  some 
massive  argument ;  and  imagination  never  sets  its  em 
bellishments  of  style  with  such  decisive  impression  as 
when  it  plays  from  a  brain  of  great  logical  consistency. 

If  it  should  be  supposed  that  this  is  a  mere  effect 
of  contrast,  as  much  to  the  honor  of  the  lighter  term 

15* 


174  PEACE   BY   POWER. 

in  the  comparison  as  the  weightier,  and  so  profitless 
to  my  doctrine,  observe  that  if  either  style  is  carried 
quite  through  a  given  mind,  or  even  through  a  single 
performance,  unrelieved  by  the  other,  the  result  in 
one  case  will  be  well-nigh  contemptible,  but  in  the 
other  never  quite  so  bad.  You  never  hold  a  string 
of  fancies,  however  brilliant,  in  such  esteem  as  a  hard 
process  of  reasoning.  We  can  better  spare  the  beauty 
than  the  force,  the  ornament  than  the  bones,  and  all 
the  ornament  than  any  one  of  the  bones.  Indeed, 
that  which  is  beauty  when  it  clothes  strength,  or  crowns 
resistance,  or  graces  grandeur,  if  it  comes  to  constitute 
the  total  substance  of  an  object,  is  beauty  no  longer, 
but  in  its  characterlessness  sinks  to  prettiness.  With 
out  the  presence  of  some  strong  trait,  a  fair  face  is  a 
sort  of  incarnate  satire. 

It  appears  to  be  owing  to  this  principle  of  propor 
tions  that  works  lying  in  the  sphere  of  the  lighter 
literature,  and  the  arts,  require  to  be  sustained  with 
uncommon  intellectual  pith  and  dignity,  to  deliver 
them  even  into  respectability.  No  writing  of  good 
sense,  however  prosaic,  is  so  insufferable  as  common 
place  poetry,  where  weakness  publishes  itself  in  the 
finery  of  measure  and  rhyme.  No  dryness  of  real 
reason  is  so  cheap  as  a  florid  mediocrity.  Unwonted 
decoration  or  sweetness,  in  humanity  or  nature,  sur 
feits  and  sickens.  There  is  no  garden  of  summer  flow 
ers  on  earth  that  can  satisfy  the  sight  of  an  intelligent 
race  like  Atlas  or  the  Jura ;  and,  in  his  more  earnest 
moods,  no  man  can  long  for  a  tropical  Eden,  or  a  vale 
of  Tempe,  as  for  the  soaring  sweeps  of  mountain-side, 
whose  wedges  widen  down  into  the  central  widths  of 
the  world. 


PEACE   BY   POWER,  175 

We  are  able  to  cite,  to  the  same  purpose,  the  familiar 
fact  that  persons  who  have  been  in  the  strain  and  peril 
of  some  moral  or  civil  revolution,  wounded  with  real 
weapons,  and  compacted  by  times  of  terror,  if  they 
have  benignant  qualities,  impress  us  in  that  way  far 
more  than  is  possible  for  men  of  softer  discipline.  Their 
past  soldiership  clears  our  confidence  of  all  suspicions 
of  a  mere  effeminate  amiability,  or  cowardly  concilia 
tion.  It  is  not  only  that  they  have  been  tried,  and 
therefore  can  be  trusted,  but  the  very  battles  where 
they  were  brave  give  a  loftier  import  to  their  sympa 
thies,  and  to  their  kindness  a  certain  authority.  Ten 
derness  is  doubly  tender  where  we  know  a  rugged  and 
aggressive  temper  has  been  subdued  to  it  by  that  rule 
over  the  spirit  which  is.  mightier  than  the  taking  of 
cities.  The  gentleness  of  heroes,  the  love  of  warriors, 
smiles  among  sunburnt  scars,  the  piteous  tears  of  the 
Northmen's  gods,  —  these  are  the  irresistible  pleaders. 
So  the  arms  of  the  fierce  Scotch  family  of  Douglas 
bore  the  inscription,  "  Tender  and  True." 

Even  of  mountains  themselves,  those  eloquent  peace- 
prophets  of  nature,  the  calmness  is  deeper  when  we 
know  that  their  preparation  has  been  through  violence, 
—  their  walls  upheaved  by  monster  forces,  their  braces 
fixed  by  earthquakes,  their  breasts  swelled  with  inner 
fire,  their  tops  torn  by  hurricanes,  or  grated  by  the 
grinding  drifts  of  deluge,  or  bitten  and  sawed  by  the 
teeth  of  glacier  and  avalanche,  rock  and  ice. 

Let  me  put  it  to  your  private  experience.  It  is 
familiar  how  bereavements,  which  are  the  storms  of 
the  soul,  prepare  the  way  for  religious  tranquillity. 
I  suppose  that  in  every  parish  church  in  the  land  the 
majority  of  trusting  disciples  were  made  so  under  the 


176  PEACE   BY   POWER. 

rough  handling  of  some  kind  of  pain.  They  had  to 
march,  weeping,  blinded,  through  the  dry  valley  of 
Baca,  to  find  it  at  last  "  a  well "  of  living  water,  and, 
going  from  strength  to  strength,  to  appear  in  Zion 
before  God.  Resignation  is  rest ;  and,  to  know  it,  the 
heart  has  to  be  torn  by  terrible  separations,  —  writhing 
at  the  new-made  grave,  heavy  among  the  ruins  of 
fortune,  broken  over  disappointed  plans,  or  unreturned 
aifections.  It  is  humiliating,  but  real.  Tempests  must 
sweep  our  sky,  before  the  air  is  still  and  the  summer 
sunshine  calls  up  the  noiseless  energies  of  life.  Ask 
the  ministers,  the  Church  records,  the  secret  thanks 
givings  that  rise  around  the  communion-table.  They 
will  tell  you,  as  One  greater  than  they  told  you  long 
before,  that  crosses  bring  calmness,  that  afflictions  yield 
afterwards  the  peaceable  fruits  of  righteousness,  that  the 
rough,  sharp  mountains,  hard  to  climb,  bring  peace  ;  and 
that  the  Sabbath  temple,  the  Lord's  great  House  of 
Rest,  into  which  the  toilsome  nations  flow  to  praise, 
is  built  upon  their  top. 

In  the  solemn  portrait-galleries  of  history,  the  serenest 
faces  are  the  saddest,  —  where  peace  has  not  been  in 
herited,  but  conquered.  We  have  this  union  of  power 
and  tenderness  eminently  in  such  as  Luther ;  the  bravest 
heart  of  all  his  age ;  fronting  the  pride  and  wrath  of 
Europe  and  ready  to  smite  it  in  the  face ;  fearless  of 
men  and  devils,  because  so  fearful  of  God,  with  his 
"  rugged  sterling  strength  and  sense"  in  all  he  did, — 
lightning  on  his  lips  and  thunderbolts  in  his  hands, 
and  his  "  smiting  idiomatic  phrases  cleaving  to  the  heart 
of  the  matter,"  —  yet,  as  was  further  well  said  of  him, 
"  a  most  gentle  heart  withal,  full  of  pity  and  love,  as 
indeed  the  valiant  heart  ever  is,"  —  weeping  at  the 


PEACE   BY   POWER.  177 

death-bed  of  his  little  Margaret,  making  music  with 
his  flute,  and  with  such  "  breathings  of  affection,  soft 
as  a  child's  or  mother's,"  in  his  wild  soul,  that  it  was 
thought  "  to  a  slight  observer  he  might  have  seemed 
a  timid,  weak  man,  —  affectionate,  shrinking  tender 
ness  the  chief  distinction  of  him." 

Doubtless  these  fierce  strengths  need  to  be  both  bal 
anced  and  mastered,  to  produce  tranquillity.  Loosen  the 
natural  attractions,  and  the  soul  becomes  like  a  universe 
of  uncentralized,  plunging  planets.  Yet  the  very  vehe 
mence  of  the  fury,  and  the  magnificence  of  the  misery 
wrought  by  unchecked  passions,  furnish  a  measure  of 
their  power  for  good,  and  inform  us  what  imperial 
powers  dwell  kindly  together  in  a  true  human  soul, — 
just  as  the  splinters  that  fly  from  a  wheel  shattered  by 
centrifugal  excess  betray  the  momentum  of  the  engine 
more  vividly  than  all  its  beneficent  regularity.  This  is 
the  baleful  energy  and  sublimity  of  crime.  Yet,  even 
in  characters  of  such  enormous  evil,  there  is  acknowl 
edged  to  be  a  sort  of  fascination,  like  the  beauty  of 
basilisks,  —  the  romance  of  villany.  We  are  never 
wholly  rid  of  the  idea  that  strength  of  any  sort  is  a 
good.  That  is  precisely  the  secret  of  success  in  the 
scriptural  and  Miltonic  character  of  Satan,  who  exerts 
his  attraction,  not  so  much  by  his  baseness  as  in  spite  of 
that,  through  the  marvellous  and  kingly  splendor  of 
that  arch-angelic  intellect,  that  was  ruined  but  not 
obscured,  and  had  all  its  royal  might  apostatized  and 
turned  over  to  rebellion.  It  is  only  when  the  power  is 
kept  in  symmetry  with  love,  and  thus  in  the  sanctity  of 
divine  order,  that  the  spirit  goes  forth  in  its  real 
majesty,  and  has  its  description  in  that  radiant  image  of 
Scripture,  — "  clear  as  the  sun,  fair  as  the  moon,  and 
terrible  as  an  army  with  banners." 


178  PEACE   BY   POWER. 

May  I  not  press  this  point  a  little  further,  and  expect 
your  agreement  when  I  say  that  we  begin  to  have  fresh 
hope  of  a  character,  that  it  will  be  something  and  do 
something,  when,  after  debility  or  effeminacy,  it  is 
roused  even  to  an  irregular  activity,  and  manifests  the 
vigor  of  a  manly  will,  though  it  should  be  in  ways  not 
the  most  profitable  ;  just  as  sometimes,  after  a  monoto 
nous  mist  in  the  air,  or  the  dull  dripping  of  a  drizzly 
day,  we  begin  to  have  a  heightened  respect,  as  it  were, 
for  the  weather,  if  a  roll  of  thunder  peals  through  the 
fog,  giving  us  a  reassurance,  if  not  a  positive  comfort,  in 
that  reverberating  affirmation,  that  we  are  still  girt 
about,  not  only  with  the  softness  and  forbearances,  but 
with  the  awful  energies  of  creation ;  that  the  eternal  ele 
ments  are  at  work,  and  that  the  whole  scene  of  things  is 
not  to  be  liquefied  into  a  loquacious  patter  of  drops,  or 
dissolve  away  into  lassitude  in  sultry  vapors.  Nor  are 
these  effects  mere  fugitive  or  fanciful  associations.  The 
positive  use  of  the  majesty  is  at  least  as  great  and  as  sus 
taining  as  that  of  the  gentleness,  to  a  reverential  mind. 
For  not  all  the  genial  fruits  that  the  showers  encour 
age  on  the  farms  are  a  nobler  offering  to  the  God  who  is 
a  spirit,  than  when  the  awe-struck  mind  answers,  with 
the  old  Psalmist,  to  the  voice  out  of  the  cloudy  taber 
nacle,  "  Yerily,  God  thundereth  marvellously,  —  and 
divideth  the  flames  of  fire,  and  shaketh  the  wilder 
ness  !  "  —  or,  with  the  Patriarch  Job,  "  Canst  thou  thun 
der  with  a  voice  like  him  ?  Lo,  these  are  parts  of  his 
ways;  but  the  thunder  of  his  power  who  can  under 
stand?" 

Again,  in  the  great  pacifications  of  empires,  the  same 
rule  prevails.  Alienated  kingdoms  are  not  restored  to 
one  another,  any  more  than  they  are  safely  upheld 


PEACE   BY  POWER.  -179 

within,  themselves,  by  those  amiable  and  unfortified  in 
stincts  which  merely  recoil  from  blood  ;  nor  by  multi 
tudes  of  weaker  well-wishers  to  the  general  welfare  among 
the  citizens.  It  takes  the  strongest  heads  to  bring 
peace.  Diplomacy  has  to  summon  her  stoutest,  clearest- 
sighted,  and  farthest-sighted  ministers.  Through  the 
laborious  disentanglement  of  political  subtleties,  and  the 
firmest  confronting  of  thought  against  thought,  the  ro 
bust  encounter  of  strong  reasons,  the  friendly  courtesies 
of  neighboring  states  are  preserved;  the  finest  logical 
abilities  of  statesmen  wrestle  together  for  the  restoration 
of  concord.  A  treaty  that  settles  the  line  across  a  dis 
puted  territory  tasks  the  best  brains  of  two  nations  ;  and 
sometimes,  for  want  of  such  wits,  a  spark  of  war  is 
fanned  into  a  flame,  and  continents  are  shaken,  or 
oceans  reddened.  All  the  soft-hearted  dispositions  of  a 
whole  people  cannot  provide  national  tranquillity  like 
two  or  three  powerful  natures  in  the  right  place, — 
the  mountains  of  the  moral  scenery.  These  are  the 
"  broadstones  of  honor,"  and  the  public  amity  reposes 
on  them.  We  can  well  understand  how  travellers 
should  say  that,  among  all  the  exquisite  openings  along 
the  Rhine,  there  is  no  more  perfect  aspect  of  peace  than 
looks  from  the  solid  masonry  of  the  Ehreribreitstein 
castle,  the  impregnable  Gibraltar  of  the  North,  with  its 
silent  battlements  four  hundred  feet  from  the  rock  in 
the  sky,  with  its  vast  magazine  equal  to  sustaining  eight 
thousand  men  on  a  ten  years'  siege,  and  its  well  sunk  to 
the  river-bed,  never  to  fail  till  the  Alpine  fountains 
are  dry.  The  most  intrepid  are  most  pacific.  Magna 
nimity  makes  no  quarrels.  Indeed,  the  very  seed-field 
of  anarchy  is  a  populace  all  of  whom  are  too  restless  to 
keep  order,  and  none  of  them  wise  and  strong  enough 
to  rule. 


180  PEACE   BY   POWER. 

Iii  this  very  Psalm  that  contains  my  text  you  have  a 
real  instance.  The  Poem  itself,  in  its  first  application, 
is  a  loyal  lyric  to  an  oriental  prince,  —  a  patriotic  cele 
bration  of  some  sovereign  both  victorious  and  fatherly  ; 
terrible  on  the  field,  but  very  gracious  in  his  home  gov 
ernment.  So  the  poet  alternately  celebrates  the  two 
sets  of  regal  attributes.  Now  the  king  is  a  fighter, 
breaking  in  pieces  the  oppressor  with  vengeance  ;  but  in 
the  next  verse  he  is  saving  the  children  of  the  needy 
whom  his  sword  has  emancipated.  Now  he  is  exalted, 
as  having  dominion  from  sea  to  sea,  a  monarch  moving 
in  arms,  the  wilderness  bowing  to  him,  his  enemies  lick 
ing  the  dust,  tributary  chiefs  and  satraps  waiting  at  his 
palace-door.  Yet,  in  the  same  strain,  and  because  the 
spear  and  throne  are  the  badge  and  seat  of  so  much, 
power,  he  is  shown  looking  compassionately  after  the 
troubles  of  the  poor,  counting  precious  the  blood  of  the 
victims  of  wrong,  and  binding  up  their  bruises  like  a 
sister  of  charity.  In  one  line  his  glory  shines  with  the 
splendor  and  constancy  of  the  siin ;  and  in  the  antistro- 
phe  it  is  said  all  nations  shall  call  him  blessed,  or  happy. 
Here  everybody  fears  him ;  but  presently  his  mercy 
comes  down  upon  the  people  "  like  rain  upon  the  mown 
grass,"  making  "  abundance  of  peace  so  long  as  the 
moon  endure th."  Obviously,  in  the  poet's  mind,  so  far 
from  suggesting  any  contradiction,  these  attributes  were 
thought  to  have  a  natural  relation,  the  power  being  the 
source  of  the  peace. 

Or  if,  as  some  interpreters  have  done,  we  take  the 
Psalm  as  a  prophetic  anthem  to  the  Messiah,  then  we 
shall  only  pass  on  to  a  better  and  even  the  highest  per 
sonal  illustration  of  the  same  thing ;  where  the  great 
ness  and  the  mercy  blend  in  complete  divine  unity, — 


PEACE   BY   POWER.  181 

a  perfect  peace  ;  where  the  "  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah" 
is  also  the  "  Lamb  of  God ;  "  where  the  wielder  of  a 
power  that  compasses  heaven  and  earth  is  meek  and 
lowly,  —  the  world's  eternal  conqueror  its  crucified 
victim, — where  the  strength  that  might  have  marshalled 
legions  of  angels  is  only  employed  to  send  out  his  infi 
nite  affection  on  a  wider  sweep,  and  with  a  mightier 
salvation. 

Hence  we  come  to  discover  in  what  order  of  persons 
we  are  to  look  for  the  noblest  charity  and  the  real  con 
solation.  We  want  our  consolers  to  be,  not  only  the 
subjects  of  pain,  but  its  conquerors  through  their  suf 
fering.  The  more  masculine  your  pity,  the  more  it 
moves  and  melts.  We  never  value  greatly  the  tears 
of  easy  weepers,  and  even  of  those  of  mothers  and 
lovers  the  power  and  the  preciousness  are  proportioned 
to  the  frugality.  Yery  weak  people  cannot  know  what 
charity  is ;  and  on  a  hot  provocation  all  their  professed 
liberality  sours  back  into  bigotry,  and  their  kindness 
curdles  into  hate. 

Writes  Henry  More  :  "  Those  that  endeavor  after  so 
still,  so  silent  and  demure  a  condition  of  mind  that  they 
would  have  the  sense  of  nothing  there  but  peace  and 
rest,  —  what  do  they  effect  but  a  clear  day  shining  upon 
a  barren  heath  ?  Neither  sheep  nor  shepherd  is  to  be 
seen  there,  but  only  a  waste  solitude,  and  one  imiform 
parchedness  and  vacuity." 

And  when  we  speak  of  comfort,  we  are  directed  up 
to  the  Comforter.  Paul  speaks  of  the  fruits  of  that. 
Paraclete,  or  Holy  Spirit,  as  "  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suf 
fering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temper 
ance  ; "  mostly,  you  say,  the  softer  graces.  But  he  is 
there  writing  to  contentious  and  boisterous  Galatians. 

1C 


182  PEACE   BY  POWER. 

What  is  the  whole  doctrine  of  that  Spirit,  in  the  New 
Testament  and  in  Paul  ?  They  represent  Him  as  not 
only  Comforter,  but  also,  and  first,  Rebuker,  Renewer, 
and  San.ctifier.  He  shall  reprove  the  world.  He  shall 
tear  up  false  confidences.  He  shall  plant  the  stripes 
and  wake  the  agonies  of  repentance,  that  he  may  be  a 
true  healer.  He  shall  rend  the  guilty  shelters  of  pride 
and  self-complacency  to  pieces.  He  shall  search  secrets, 
divide  joints  and  marrow,  —  so  close  and  sharp  is  his 
work, — toss  the  heart  with  self-accusing,  and  then  re 
build  the  whole  character  and  church  on  clear,  stout, 
rocky  foundations.  And  this  shall  be  his  comforting. 
This  will  be  the  preparation  of  a  peace  that  cannot  be 
moved,  —  deep,  genuine,  strong,  healthy,  lasting,  —  a 
repentance  that  needeth  never  to  be  repented  of. 

Yes,  all  our  peace  is  in  God,  who  is  not  only  the 
strongest,  but  Almighty.  As  the  mountains  are  round 
about  Jerusalem,  the  capital  and  throne  of  the  nation, 
so  the  Lord  is  round  about  his  people. 

It  is  at  the  close  of  that  superb  hymn  to  Omnipotence, 
in  the  twenty-ninth  Psalm,  that  we  hear  the  subdued 
twofold  benediction,  —  "  The  Lord  will  give  strength 
unto  his  people;  the  Lord  will  bless  his  people  with 
peace." 

His  presence  is  safety  precisely  because  it  is  power, — 
the  love  invincible,  —  the  compassion  omnipotent.  He 
in  whose  pavilion  we  can  hide,  in  the  shadow  of  whose 
wings  we  can  utterly  trust,  must  be  the  Father,  and  the 
Father  of  an  Infinite  Majesty  ;  who  himself  settcth  fast 
the  mountains,  being  girded  with  power;  who  ridetli 
upon  the  high  places  of  the  earth  and  breaketh  the 
cedars ;  before  whom  the  mountains  themselves  are 
moved  and  the  everlasting  hills  skip  like  lambs,  —  Leb 
anon  and  Sirion  like  a  young  unicorn,  and  the  seven 


PEACE  BY   POWER.  183 

thunders  uttering  their  voices.  He  is  our  Father.  He 
is  our  Infinite  Clemency.  He  is  the  good  and  gentle 
Shepherd.  And  when  work  has  made  ready  for  rest, 
and  discipline  has  ripened  faith,  and  the  energies  of  life 
have  found  their  sabbath,  and  power  has  broken  down 
the  middle-wall  of  partition  and  made  us  one.  He  it  is 
who  then,  in  his  Son,  becomes  "  our  peace,"  reconciling 
us  thus  to  himself,  and  leading  us  then,. at  last,  where 
we  could  not  come  before,  in  the  green  meadows,  by  the 
still  waters. 

Let  me  turn  this  train  of  thought  now,  as  briefly  as 
possible,  to  direct  personal  applications. 

1.  We  learn  from  it  never  to  be  afraid  of  rugged  and 
even  painful  experiences.     Even  if  happiness  were  our 
highest  end,  which  with  noble  natures  it  never  can  be, 
the  rough  handling  of  repentance  and  sorrow  will  be 
our  shortest  way.     It  is  not  among  the  children  of  in 
dulgence  or  idleness  that  you  find  the  most  contented 
households,  or  the  serenest  souls,  but  with  them  that 
take   up   crosses    cheerfully,   and  fear  none   of  those 
things  that  they  shall  suffer,  and  never  cry  "  Peace, 
peace,"  when  there  is  no  peace,  nor  seek  it  where  it  is 
not  to  be  found.     It  is   only  truth,  in  its   two-edged 
strength,  that  makes  the  arm  strong;  and  only  loftiness 
and  largeness  and  firmness  that  give  peace. 

"  Great  souls  snatch  vigor  from  the  stormy  air, 
While  weaker  natures  suffer  and  despair ; 
Grief  not  the  languor  but  the  action  brings, 
And  spreads  the  horizon  but  to  nerve  the  wings." 

2.  We  have  also  a  rule  for  "  strengthening  the  breth 
ren."    Influences  of  power,  of  course,  whether  in  inspir 
ation  or  sustenance,  cannot  go  out  except  from  vigor 
ous  hearts.     And  if  we  think  to  make  up  for  the  lack  of 
these  by  abounding  in  gentle  sympathies,  we  have  seen 


184  PEACE   BY   POWER. 

that  vacillating  and  feeble  people  cannot  be  very  effect- 
iial  even  as  sons  of  consolation.  We  would  all  rather 
be  spoken  to  of  submission  by  heroes  and  prophets, — 
the  men  of  iron  arms,  clad  in  camel's  hair,  their  mus 
cles  fed  on  wild  honey,  or  by  the  women  of  St.  Bar 
bara's  endurance.  As  we  would  comfort  one  another, 
we  must  try,  with  the  apostle's  earnestness,  to  "  endure 
hardness  as  good  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ." 

3.  "We  see,  further,  of  how  sterling  worth  is  a  form  of 
religious  belief  which  holds  fast  the  stringent  as  well  as 
the  soothing  doctrines  of  Christ's  evangelical  teaching. 
Any  theological  system  runs  fast  to  feebleness,  and  se 
cretly  loosens  its  grasp,  which  deals  in  the  unmingled 
imagery  of  caresses  and  indulgences.  Just  as  a  creed 
of  rigid  legality,  a  dispensation  of  threats  and  judg 
ments,  is  bloodless,  so  a  creed  of  indiscriminate  compas 
sion  is  nerveless.  The  order  of  the  universe  is  poised 
between  justice  and  mercy  ;  and  it  is  not  kindness,  but 
the  bitterest  cruelty,  which  would  imsettle  that  order, 
by  giving  us  a  Deity  too  doting  to  punish,  and  too  fond 
to  judge.  If  we  have  a  Father  who  is  simply  fond,  we 
have  one  that  cannot  forgive,  and  whom  it  is  not  possible 
for  a  very  intelligent  being  to  love,  but  only  to  flatter 
and  despise  ;  and  when  we  worship  a  deified  fondness,  it 
is  likely  that  our  self-direction  will  be  only  a  fondling  of 
our  favorite  sins.  The  Gospel  is  able  to  encourage  us, 
just  because  its  promises  beam  forth  from  such  a  tre 
mendous  background  of  equity  and  prohibition.  Its 
reconciliations  must  be  no  mock  deliverances,  or  rhetor 
ical  reliefs,  or  quasi  salvation,  but  realities.  Our  God 
must  be  the  God  who  hates  iniquity,  and  destroys  pride, 
and  brings  down  the  oppressor,  and  breaks  in  pieces 
those  that  lift  themselves  against  him,  —  a  God  who 


PEACE   BY   POWER.  185 

makes  the  natural  penalties  of  guilt  the  exact  measure 
of  his  grace  in  pardoning,  and  who  rules  in  righteous 
ness  precisely  to  this  very  end,  that  he  may  be  a  Father 
of  forgiveness. 

4.  We  learn  the  way  of  making  our  own  eternal  life 
secure.  The  New  Testament  speaks  continually  to  us 
of  salvation.  How  little  they  interpret  that  term  by 
Christ  himself  who  find  nothing  in  it  but  a  timid  appeal 
to  calculating,  sordid  self-love  !  By  salvation  he  means 
such  safety  as  lies  in  a  sturdy  and  athletic  power  of 
character,  will,  heart,  conscience,  and  intellect,  got 
by  daring  to  attempt  great  virtues,  and  by  incessant 
intrepidity.  Hence  he  stirs  the  great  deeps  of  human 
nature,  moves  its  most  magnificent  affections,  requires 
the  travail  of  a  new  birth,  prophesies  warfare,  will  have 
his  disciples  consent  to  crucifixion  sooner  than  deny 
him,  and  let  the  dead  bury  their  dead  rather  than 
look  back.  He  offers  a  new  yoke  to  the  weary  who 
pray  for  rest,  and  says  that  yoke  shall  rest  them.  He 
holds  up  no  lower  standard  than  to  be  perfect  as  the 
Father  in  heaven  is  perfect,  and  impartial  as  the  God  of 
sun  and  rain.  He  says,  Give  up  houses  and  lands  for 
duty,  false  friendships  for  principle,  fame  for  truth,  the 
whole,  world  for  God.  So  he  strikes  boldly  in  among 
the  grander  verities  of  the  soul.  He  would  build  broad 
ly  and  loftily.  He  sets  up,  as  the  chief  apostle,  the 
manliest  person  of  his  age,  —  the  embodiment  of  all 
that  is  indomitable,  generous,  shrewd,  witty,  patient, 
independent,  modest.  He  wins  confidence  by  the  very 
immensity  of  his  demands.  Men  speak  of  Christianity 
is  honoring  the  passive  virtues,  like  poverty  of  spirit. 
But  it  does  this  for  the  very  reason  that,  by  a  pro- 
bunder  understanding  of  human  nature,  and  a  sharper 


186  PEACE   BY  POWER. 

insight  into  facts,  it  knows  that  in  the  consistency  of 
those  virtues  with  the  active  ones  is  the  hardest  stress 
on  men's  individuality  ;  and  so  it  is  original  in  pro 
posing  the  tests  of  Christian  manhood  just  where  they 
are  most  decisive, —  in  faith,  in  the  taking  of  crosses,  in 
a  free  consent  to  be  inspired,  and  thus  be  saved  by  the 
Divine  Spirit  acting  down  into  humanity  from  heaven, 
in  the  Redeemer's  life  and  love. 

5.  My  final  remark  grows  out  of  all  that  has  gone 
before ;  and  it  is  that  we  disturb  the  true  spiritual 
order,  and  invert  God's  plan  for  us,  whenever  we  go  in 
search  of  peace  first,  and  not  holiness  ;  when  we  pray 
most  heartily  for  the  quiet  of  repose,  instead  of  the 
honors  of  toil,  and  the  noble  pains  of  sacrifice.  "  First 
pure,  then  peaceable :  "  that  is  the  clearly-pronounced 
order  and  everlasting  law  of  a  disciple's  way. 


SEKMON    X. 

THE   CLOUD  AND   THE   VOICE. 

AND    THEY    FEARED    AS    THEY    ENTERED    INTO     THE    CLOUD.  — 

Luke  ix.  34. 

THIS  scene  of  the  Transfiguration  lies  on  the  border 
land  between  the  material  world  and  the  spiritual,  and 
belongs  partly  to  both.  The  simplest  truth  taught  by 
it  is  that  both  these  worlds  are  real.  At  present,  we 
know  the  one  through  our  senses,  and  the  other,  if 
we  take  knowledge  of  it  at  all,  through  inward  per 
ceptions  of  the  soul.  If  any  of  us  live  chiefly  in  the 
senses,  —  if  our  interests,  habits,  and  tastes  lie  chiefly 
on  that  side,  or  if  the  exercises  of  our  minds  cling 
principally  to  the  material  aspect  of  things,  —  then  the 
discernment  of  the  other  great  reality  grows  dim. 
When  anything  is  told  us  of  it,  even  in  the  Scrip 
tures,  it  sounds  like  a  fable.  Openly  or  secretly,  we 
question  its  authority.  The  spiritual  discernment,  or 
faculty  of  faith,  has  not  been  used,  —  perhaps  not  even 
opened;  and  then,  though  we  should  stand  around 
the  Son  of  Man,  who  came  to  show  how  these  two 
worlds  are  one  and  open  into  one  another,  —  though  the 
Prophets  should  come,  clothed  in  light,  and  a  voice 
speak  out  of  the  excellent  glory,  —  we  should  only  say 
it  was  a  meteor,  or  it  thundered.  It  would  take  more 


188          THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  VOICE. 

than  a  Bible,  more  than  a  miracle  to  convince  us.  No 
matter  how  merciful  or  wonderful  the  work, —  "  Neither 
would  they  be  persuaded  though  one  rose  from  the 
dead."  And  so  it  turned  out  where  the  wonder 
working  Saviour  stood.  He  healed  men's  miseries ;  — 
they  that  were  dead  sat  up  and  spake.  Some  believed ; 
some  doubted. 

Three  men,  the  three  who  seem  to  have  been  the 
best  prepared  to  enter  into  the  higher  meaning  of  the 
Christian  life,  and  were  therefore  admitted  whenever 
the  Saviour's  divine  power  was  more  mysteriously  man 
ifest, —  John,  Peter,  and  James,  —  were  called  up  to 
witness  this  immortal  interview,  where  the  two  great 
Prophets  of  the  elder  and  preparatory  covenant  were 
to  meet,  in  transfigured  forms,  with  the  Messiah  of 
the  Fulfilment,  and  there,  in  the  serenity  and  splendor 
of  the  Mount,  to  converse  together  of  "  the  decease 
which  he  should  accomplish  at  Jerusalem ; "  a  theme 
vast  and  solemn  enough  even  for  that  august  audi 
ence.  Moses  the  Lawgiver,  Elijah  the  Reformer,  Jesus 
the  Redeemer!  In  the  whole  representation  of  what 
took  place,  you  see  things  that  in  themselves  are  quite 
beyond  natural  observation,  exhibited  by  natural  objects 
and  appearances,  —  as  a  mountain,  human  bodies,  light, 
sound. 

This  fact  has  sufficient  religious  importance  to  justify 
us  in  dwelling  a  moment  upon  it.  Setting  aside  notions 
purely  Pagan,  and  keeping  in  the  line  of  the  nominal 
belief  in  one  God,  there  are  three  distinctly  marked 
stages  in  the  progress  of  opinion  about  the  natural 
world,  with  a  fourth  to  come. 

The  first  of  these  is  where  the  natural  world  is  re 
garded  as  divine  only  as  to  what  appears  to  be  extraor- 


THE   CLOUD   AND   THE   VOICE.  189 

» 

dinary  or  exceptional  in  it.  Thunders,  tempests,  earth 
quakes,  eclipses,  famines,  pestilences,  are  thought  to 
betray  a  divine  presence.  Or,  in  human  affairs,  sudden 
accidents,  unexpected  deliverances,  strange  coincidences. 
God  is  a  God  of  occasional  interference,  not  of  con 
stant  regulation  and  animation.  Not  all  our  daily 
affairs  and  the  regular  processes  of  creation  are  sub 
ject  to  his  watchfulness,  and  charged  with  his  in 
dwelling  spirit ;  but  nature  is  liable  to  arbitrary  visita 
tions  from  without.  The  religious  sentiment  feeds  on 
the  marvellous.  There  is  a  piety  of  surprises  and 
•i  alarms,  —  intermittent,  spasmodic.  God  is  not  in  the 
order  of  nature,  its  laws,  its  silent,  beneficent  growths 
and  noiseless  motions,  but  in  its  loud  jars  and  grotesque 
anomalies.  You  will  hear  much  there  of  special 
providences :  it  is  not  Providence  at  all,  but  intrusion, 
improvisation,  perturbation.  Of  course  this  will  be  a 
God  of  violence  and  of  terror.  And  the  name  of  this 
first  view  will  be  Superstition.  The  supernatural  is, 
then,  strange,  frightful. 

The  second  is  exactly  opposite  to  this.  It  is  where 
the  attention  is  turned  wholly  to  the  law-side  of  nature, 
and  does  not  see  that  there  is  a  personal  will  acting 
Teely  anywhere  within  nature  or  about  it.  It  is  so 
3ent  on  getting  rid  of  exceptions  that  it  forgets  the 
Maker.  It  mistakes  uniformity  for  self-acting  me 
chanics.  Virtually  it  denies  the  spiritual  world,  with 
ill  its  nobler,  varied  and  glorified  forms  of  life.  There 
ire  men  so  absorbed  in  the  regular  processes  of  the 
iniverse  as  to  be  insensible  both  to  its  Original  and 
;o  its  holy  object.  Prudence  is  substituted  for  piety. 
Che  nearest  approach  to  penitence  is  regret  for  a  mis 
calculation.  Self-reliance  is  put  for  devout  trust;  a 


190          THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  VOICE. 

» 

little  knowledge,  which  vanishes  away,  for  faith  and 
hope  and  charity,  which  abide.  The  future  is  all 
dark,  without  promise  or  resurrection.  The  name  of 
this  is  scepticism.  The  supernatural  is  denied. 

The  third,  which  is  unquestionably  a  great  advance 
on  the  other  two,  is  where  God  is  believed  to  be  over 
both  the  natural  and  the  spiritual  world,  but  only  in 
the  spiritual.  These  two  worlds  are  driven  wide  apart. 
Thus  the  only  religious  purpose  answered  by  nature 
is  to  furnish  a  convenient  supply  of  figures  and  illus 
trations  for  religious  discourse.  In  those  who  have 
a  lively  admiration  for  external  beauty  there  will  grow 
up  a  sort  of  fanciful,  poetical,  sentimental  piety ;  in 
those  who  distrust  and  despise  the  material  world,  as 
ceticism.  Christianity  and  creation  are  sundered, 
though  God  joined  them  together.  It  is  a  kind  of 
half-belief.  The  supernatural  is  essentially  unreal ;  and 
the  evidence  of  miracle,  where  it  is  introduced  into 
theology,  has  a  materialistic  cast,  as  if  the  high  and 
self-attesting  truths  of  Christianity  and  the  soul  were 
actually  dependent  on  proofs  addressed  to  the  senses. 

But  there  is  a  fourth  condition, —  or  will  be  yet, — 
where  the  natural  and  the  spiritual  are  seen  and  felt  to 
be  parts  of  one  plan,  under  one  Creator.  The  laws 
of  the  one  are  recognized  to  be  exactly  harmonious, 
nay,  identical,  with  the  laws  of  the  other.  There  is  not 
only  a  resemblance,  but  a  correspondence  ;  the  things  of 
nature  being  found  to  be  the  things  of  the  spirit  of  man, 
good  and  evil ;  and  all  the  things  of  nature  having  their 
counterpart  in  the  spiritual  world,  whether  life  or  death, 
health  or  disease,  clouds  or  sunshine,  serpents  or  doves. 
Christ's  'instructions  are  full  of  these  things  ;  and  they 
are  not  accidental  comparisons,  but  are  meant  to  bring 


THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  VOICE.          191 

God's  works  together  into  the  closest  unity.  So  says 
the  Apostle  Paul  in  a  passage  which  commentators  have 
only  partially  and  superficially  comprehended  :  "  The  in 
visible  things  of  Him,  from  the  creation  of  the  world, 
are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things  that 
are  made."  He  is  the  God  of  the  insect  as  much  as  of 
the  archangel.  In  the  original  design  of  the  Creative 
mind,  each  was  meant  for  the  other, — everything  in 
nature,  great  or  small,  star  or  starfish,  to  meet  and 
answer  to  something  in  man.  This  at  present  may  be 
Christian  mysticism.  But  it  will  be  Christian  faith. 
All  the  strong  tendencies  of  true  science,  as  well  as  of 
Revelation,  are  bearing  in  this  direction.  They  tell  us 
that  when  God  formed  the  lowest  living  creature,  al 
ready  man,  with  brain  and  heart  and  immortality,  was 
in  his  thought.  In  every  department  of  knowledge  and 
thought,  unity  is  the  reigning  idea.  All  interdepend  ;  all 
belong  to  each  other  ;  all  serve  each  other.  And  this  is 
the  Christian  doctrine.  Revelation  is  to  find  each  of  its 
great  practical  truths  confirmed  in  the  universe.  The 
sovereignty  of  God ;  his  personal  and  free  presence  to 
every  part  and  particle;  the  disorder  of  sin,  or  disobe 
dience  to  law ;  the  remedy  for  that,  or  reconciliation  ; 
the  necessity  of  a  second  or  spiritual  birth  to  restore  and 
complete  the  natural  man,  —  have  dim  types  in  nature. 
And,  above  all,  —  what  now  concerns  us  most, — there 
is  hinted  the  reality  of  a  revelation  of  what  is  unseen 
and  eternal,  through  appropriate  and  pre-adapted  forms 
that  are  seen  and  temporal,  in  connection  with  the  min 
istry  of  the  Son  of  God  and  Son  of  Man,  as  a  media 
tor  belonging  both  to  earth  and  heaven,  or  rather  as 
having  both  these  belonging  to  him.  In  this  view,  the 
Christian  miracles  become  not  only  credible,  but  what 


P  -m«r  inamn^r  OTHT  -*2£    t  ma 

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194  THE   CLOUD    AND    THE   VOICE. 

under  the  laws  of  light  and  air  and  water  and  attrac 
tion,  are  the  properties  of  the  cloud  in  nature. 

Now,  in  that  succession  of  special  disclosures  of  the 
Divine  Presence  and  care  for  man,  of  which  the  Bible  is 
the  completest  record  and  Christ  the  perfect  incarna 
tion,  it  is  striking  to  see  how  each  principal  act  of  Rev 
elation  is  covered  with  a  cloud,  —  a  palpable  veil  of 
mystery.  In  the  book  of  Job,  supposed  to  be  the  oldest 
piece  of  writing,  there  is  a  statement,  —  an  anticipation 
of  what  has  just  now,  after  thousands  of  years,  come  to 
be  the  settled  conclusion  of  studies  in  science,  —  that 
in  the  very  process  of  creative  power  the  whole  planet 
lay  enfolded  in  a  garment  of  cloud,  —  "  thick  darkness 
a  swaddling-band  for  it."  The  earliest  covenant  of 
God's  mercy  for  his  children,  it  is  written,  had  its  token 
in  a  rainbow  of  the  cloud.  At  the  emancipation  of  the 
chosen  people,  the  beginning  of  the  history  in  which 
Christianity  was  to  be  born,  a  cloud  led  the  tribes,  which 
was  "  light  by  night "  to  them,  but  was  "  darkness  " 
to  the  pursuing  Egyptians.  Throughout  all  their  long 
march  to  the  Land  of  Promise,  this  cloud  was  not  only 
a  guide,  but  a  special  sign  of  Jehovah,  and  they  saw  his 
glory  in  it.  At  Sinai,  through  all  the  giving  of  the 
Law  and  the  founding  of  the  Hebrew  commonwealth, 
which  was  the  inauguration  of  the  first  dispensation,  it 
is  said  a  cloud  covered  the  Mount.  In  the  ark  of  the 
tabernacle,  in  the  holy  of  holies,  in  the  Shekinah,  which 
was  the  lineal  antecedent  of  the  temple  and  the 
church,  the  symbol  of  the  Lord's  perpetual  watchfulness 
was  a  cloud  over  the  mercy-seat;  and  at  great  crises 
in  the  religious  history  we  are  told  of  a  cloud  filling 
the  sanctuary.  Isaiah  prefigures  the  flocking  in  of  the 
Gentile  nations  into  the  true  fold,  and  the  worship  of  a 


THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  VOICE.          195 

universal  assembly,  under  the  same  image.  All  the 
devout  Jewish  poetry  preserves  these  allusions,  and 
finds  in  the  clouds  a  fit  dwelling,  or  chariot,  or  pavil 
ion  for  the  Most  High.  In  the  New  Testament,  the 
highest  and  clearest  manifestations  of  the  Son  of  God 
robe  themselves  in  this  mystery,  —  as  at  the  transfigu 
ration,  the  ascension,  and  the  predicted  judgment. 
"  As  they  beheld,  a  cloud  received  him  up  out  of  their 
sight."  "  They  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  a 
cloud,  with  power  and  great  glory  ;  every  eye  shall  see 
him,  —  men's  hearts  failing  them  for  fear,  and  the 
powers  of  heaven  shaken."  The  Apocalypse  repeats 
these  representations.  From  the  beginning  to  the  end 
you  see  the  persistent  and  remarkable  reappearance  of 
this  symbol.  Considering  how  these  different  books  of 
the  Bible  were  produced,  and  what  a  variety  of  authors, 
periods,  countries,  stages  of  literary  culture,  they  pro 
ceed  from,  this  is  more  than  a  coincidence,  —  it  is  de 
sign.  It  discloses  a  general  truth.  As  men  are  brought 
near  to  the  very  sight  and  feeling  of  their  Lord,  an  ob 
scurity  overshadows  them  ;  there  is  a  shrinking  ;  rever 
ence  hides  the  face  ;  the  angels  even,  admitted  to  the 
brightest  day,  veil  their  eyes  with  their  wings  ;  no  sight 
is  clear  enough,  no  faith  is  bold  enough,  not  to  need  the 
screen.  "  They  feared  as  they  entered  into  the  cloud." 

Instead  of  looking  farther  away  from  us,  let  us  see  if 
the  great  truth  lying  under  all  these  forms  does  not 
come  very  near,  to  strengthen  or  to  comfort  us,  in  our 
own  familiar  experience.  The  loftiest  visions  of  heaven 
have  much  to  do  with  Our  lowliest  and  commonest 
duties.  There  is  one  lesson  for  the  privileged  disciples 
and  for  us. 

1.  Most  of  our  deepest  acquaintance  with  religious 


196          THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  VOICE. 

truth  comes  by  a  discipline  of  some  severity.  To  pass 
out  of  a  life  of  indifference  and  self-indulgence  into  one 
of  purity  and  prayer  requires  a  painful  effort.  If  you 
can  look  back  to  any  time  when  your  life  took  a  new 
starting-point,  or  rose  to  a  higher  aim,  you  will  remem 
ber  there  was  some  hard  conflict  connected  with  it. 
Suffering  is  not  only  the  consequence  of  sin,  but  the 
instrument  of  recovery.  It  is  a  means  of  penitence, 
and  so  a  minister  to  the  only  real  peace.  The  source  of 
the  trial  may  be  without  or  within  :  in  disasters  of  for 
tune,  defeats  of  pride,  failures  of  ambition,  companion 
ships  which  cross  and  torture  our  temper,  disordered 
and  aching  bodies,  secret  adversaries  fighting  with  con 
science,  or  bereavement  by  death,  putting  such  a  look 
on  the  world  that  it  never  can  be  again  what  it  was 
before,  —  quenching  joys  never  to  be  rekindled.  It  is 
under  some  shadow,  through  some  cloud,  that  most  of 
us  have  to  approach  our  Master,  and  enter  into  the 
brightness  of  his  communion.  The  Christian's  path,  as 
he  enters  on  it,  is  very  apt  to  run  by  ruins  or  graves,  — 
ruins  of  desire,  or  graves  of  those  not  less  dear  because 
their  beauty  was  mortal,  and  their  strength  was  frail. 
Think  as  we  may  of  this  humiliating  necessity,  it  will 
not  be  easy  to  trace  the  secret  workings  of  Christian 
power,  or  to  examine  the  records  of  the  visible  church 
of  believers,  and  deny  it.  Nay,  Christ  himself  an 
nounced  it  plainly  beforehand  :  "Whoever  would  be  my 
disciple  must  take  up  a  cross  to  come  after  me."  The 
question  in  the  mind  of  any  one  of  you  may  be,  whether 
it  is  true  or  not.  But  the  real  question  is  only  whether 
your  life  has  yet  been  wide  and  deep  enough  to  find  it 
out,  or  whether  you  have  it  yet  to  learn. 

2.  The  second  point  on  this  practical  side  of  the  doc- 


THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  VOICE.  197 

trine  is  that  it  is  when  we  are  entering'  into  this  cloud, 
—  having  only  the  dark  side  of  it  before  us,  and  its 
damp  and  chilly  folds  closing  around  us,  —  that  we  are 
afraid. 

The  purpose  of  the  cloud  is  to  shut  out  all  that  we 
are  not  meant  to  see.  It  is  also  a  kind  of  background 
for  the  heavenly  vision.  There  must  be  a  bitterness  in 
the  draught  that  heals  us.  This  is  only  one  way  of  ex 
pressing  the  exact  and  eternal  contradiction  of  right 
and  wrong.  The  true  life  is  born  by  a  painful  travail. 
The  all-giving  Father  does  not  begrudge  us  joy;  but 
when  we  were  created  with  the  capacity  of  immortal 
growth  and  infinite  bliss,  we  took  with  it  the  capacity  of 
a  fall, — and  we  fell.  The  very  knowledge  of  our  highest 
good  is  overcast.  So  that  when  the  merciful  Lord  brings 
us  on  the  way  towards  himself  and  his  glory,  we  do  not 
know  what  is  before  us.  The  trials  that  result  in  our 
regeneration  are  dark  as  we  go  into  them.  They  are 
trials  for  faith.  Is  it  all  black  vapor  ?  Are  there  horrid, 
fiendish  shapes  ?  Are  there  possibly  bright  forms  of 
heavenly  helpers  ?  Will  deadly  blows  be  struck  at  our 
hearts  in  the  dark  ?  Or,  will  voices  of  promise  and  bless 
ing  speak  ?  It  is  so  with  the  coming  of  a  physical  dis 
order.  The  struggle  is  at  the  appearance  of  the  first 
fatal  symptoms.  The  sufferer  fears  them.  Afterwards, 
as  the  malady  wears  on,  very  often  angels  come  and 
minister  about  the  happy  bed.  It  is  so  with  the  early 
agonies  of  penitence  ;  with  the  first  crash  of  our  break 
ing,  long-cherished  plans  ;  with  the  announcement  that 
those  we  love  must  die.  The  alleviations,  the  illumina 
tions,  are  not  yet.  Fear  is  a  sign  of  weakness  and  de 
pendence,  perhaps  of  conscious  wrong  and  remorse. 
And  in  the  best  of  the  disciples  there  will  be  enough  of 
17* 


198          THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  VOICE. 

tins  sense  of  shortcoming  and  estrangement  to  make  the 
entrance  into  the  cloud  dreadful.  Either  the  fear  of 
guilt,  or  the  fear  of  reverence,  will  bow  the  most  self- 
confident  down.  The  time  that  brings  the  clear  warn 
ing  of  some  advancing  sorrow  is  a  day  of  clouds  and 
darkness.  We  shudder  and  start  back,  and  ask  bitterly 
if  this  cup  cannot  be  removed,  and  cry  that  we  cannot, 
cannot  bear  it ;  and  then  we  go  into  a  secret  conflict 
with  ourselves,  or  our  fate,  and  it  is  indeed  a  valley  of 
the  shadow  of  death.  Like  the  solitary  Patriarch,  in  an 
agony  that  no  human  soul  can  share,  we  wrestle  there 
till  the  day  breaketh,  or  else  till  it  is  hopeless  despair 
and  the  second  death.  When  mothers  look  into  the 
faces  of  their  children  and  listen  to  their  breathing,  and 
then  first  realize  that  another  and  stronger  arm  than 
theirs  is  drawing  the  little  darling  frame  irresistibly 
away ;  when  some  definite  sensation  in  the  body  tells 
that  all  remedy  is  fruitless,  and  it  is  only  a  matter  of  a 
little  longer  or  shorter  postponement,  and  the  keepers  of 
that  house  tremble,  and  its  windows  are  darkened ;  when 
the  roused  conscience  is  first  stirred  by  the  conviction 
that  all  thus  far  has  been  horribly  ungrateful  and  hol 
low  and  ungodly,  —  then  it  is  entering'  into  the  cloud, 
and  it  is  fear.  The  heart  sinks.  The  mind  wavers. 
The  reason  is  blinded.  The  universe  is  a  riddle.  Prov 
idence  seems  gone.  The  sun  is  hid.  Faith  has  not  laid 
her  hand  yet  on  the  clew.  We  see  no  way  out,  and  no 
morning  beyond.  It  is  darkness,  and  nothing  but  dark 
ness,  —  before  and  around  and  above.  Are  there  some 
that  do  not  know  this?  We  cannot  even  pray  that 
they  may  never  know  it,  —  because  so  are  we  made 
that  only  by  knowing  it  can  we  know  what  comes  after. 
3.  For,  thirdly,  there  comes,  as  the  Evangelist  writes, 


THE  CLOUD   AND  THE   VOICE.  199 

"a  voice  oufc  of  the  cloud,"  which  is  sufficient,  if  we 
will  hearken  to  it,  to  guide  us  through  the  dark,  into 
the  light,  where  the  sun  is  never  dim.  Nay,  it  will  in 
fuse  light  through  all  the  cloud  itself;  and  that,  instead 
of  a  cavern  of  blackness  breathing  deadly  night-winds, 
becomes  a  pillar  of  fire,  a  token  that  our  Leader  is  near, 
a  luminous  temple  of  peace  and  rest.  If  we  are  not 
buried  in  the  cloud,  and  lost  there,  by  a  faithless  and 
obstinate  impenitence,  then  we  shall  be  permitted, 
after  patience  and  through  faith,  to  behold  this  trans 
figuration.  For  the  voice  says,  "  This  is  my  beloved 
Son,  hear  him."  Hear  him,  and  he  will  scatter  the 
cloud  from  about  you  with  the  breath  of  his  mouth. 
Hear  him  to  believe,  and  you  will  be  willing  to  let  the 
cloud  remain  all  God's  time,  for  even  the  night  will 
be  light  about  you.  Hear  him  to  obey  him,  and  you  are 
sure  that  the  upward  path  he  has  appointed  shall  be 
brighter  and  brighter,  till  the  light  of  the  moon  shall  be 
as  the  sun,  and  the  light  of  the  sun  sevenfold.  Hear 
him  to  love  him,  and,  in  cloud  or  sun,  health  or 
sick  chamber,  in  a  glad  house  or  sitting  by  the  grave 
stone,  living  or  dying,  you  will  never  be  afraid  again, 
because  perfect  love  casteth  out  fear. 

So  it  is,  as  many  of  you  will  bear  witness,  that  in 
the  Christian  life  it  is  only  the  clouds  before  that  are 
terrible  ;  when  they  are  passed  through,  or  when  faith 
looks  up  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  hears  the  voice,  they 
put  on  garments  of  light, — their  receding  forms  are 
beautiful ;  or,  if  they  follow,  it  is  only  as  luminous  wit 
nesses  what  God's  discipline  has  done  for  us, — moving 
and  ethereal  monuments  of  a  pain  that  was  merciful. 

Many  thousands  have  found  this  to  be  wonderfully 
true  ;  the  heavenly  hand  leading  them  forcibly  just 


200          THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  VOICE. 

where  they  dreaded  to  go,  and  so  bringing  them,  by  a 
way  they  knew  not,  to  the  mount  of  his  glory  and 
his  peace.  There  may  be  other  clouds  yet  before  us. 
But  they  also,  forbidding  as  they  will  look  at  first,  if  we 
bend  to  hear  the  Divine  voice  speaking  in  them,  will 
roll  away  behind  us  like  the  rest,  and  dissolve  in  sun 
shine.  So  that  the  voice  says,  Be  of  good  courage ;  only 
believe ;  only  believe  ;  fear  none  of  those  things  that 
thou  shalt  suffer,  —  pain,  or  affliction,  or  separation ;  I 
will  be  with  thee  ;  my  rod  and  staff  shall  comfort  thee ; 
open  thy  heart  to  me,  and  then  my  truth  shall  irradiate 
all  thy  soul  as  the  unhindered  sunbeams  fill  the  spaces 
of  the  air,  and  there  shall  be  no  dark  corner  left.  In 
the  world  ye  shall  have  tribulation ;  but  I  have  over 
come  the  world.  Only  live  in  love  and  purity  and 
trust.  Then  all  heaven  is  above  you.  More  than  that, 
the  very  heavens  are  come  down.  You  have  nothing  left 
to  fear.  Christ  walks  with  you.  "  The  Lord  shall  be 
thine  everlasting  light,  and  thy  God  thy  glory." 

The  end  of  this  line  of  thought  must  be  with  the  end 
of  earth  and  the  earthly  life.  One  of  two  sorts  of  death 
bed  every  one  of  us  here  is  daily  preparing.  At  one  of 
them,  the  cloud  will  be  heavy  and  thick  and  cold; 
nay,  it  will  not  be  cloud  only,  but  night,  —  the  sun 
gone  down  ;  and  there  will  be  no  voice  from  the  Christ 
of  the  Resurrection  speaking  in  it,  bringing  life  and 
immortality  to  light.  Whether  conscience  is  then 
awake  and  afraid,  and  the  restlessness  and  alarm  show 
that  judgment  is  begun,  or  whether  long  recklessness 
and  self-conceit  have  created  an  insensibility  whose 
calmness  is  more  frightful  than  any  fear,  —  it  will  be 
dark  :  dark  to  the  dying,  and  dark  to  the  surviving. 
They  will  try,  in  the  desperation  of  a  partial  fondness, 


THE   CLOUD   AND   THE   VOICE.  201 

to  glean,  up  from  your  waste  of  life  the  memory  of 
some  better  fragments  of  amiability,  or  outside  virtue, 
to  relieve  the  dreary  retrospect,  —  hardly  to  brighten 
the  prospect.  So  die  the  foolish  and  the  faithless ;  and 
it  is  death  indeed. 

The  other  is  the  departure  of  the  Christian  believer 
and  workman  :  not  to  be  described,  because  there  is  in 
it  something  of  that  spiritual  and  mysterious  grandeur 
which  never  went  into  any  speech  of  man.  Yet  it  is  a 
mortal  transfiguration  begun.  "Whatever  the  aspect 
physical  disorder  and  emaciation  may  wear,  the  cloud 
has  another  side  turned  to  the  unfading  sun.  There  is 
no  distressing  attempt  to  palliate,  or  to  excuse,  or  to  flat 
ter.  The  mourners  may  weep ;  but  it  is  as  those  weep 
who  hold  a  cross  in  their  hands,  and  are  sure  that  the 
terms  of  forgiveness  have  been  fulfilled.  The  dying 
one  may  groan ;  but  it  is  as  the  most  human  lips  of  the 
Divine  One  groaned,  praying,  "  Not  as  I  will,  but  as 
thou  wilt."  We  need  not  ask  that  our  friends  should 
die  in  transport.  Yet  if  their  trust  is  in  the  crucified 
and  transfigured  One,  it  is  a  bright  cloud  that  receives 
them  up  out  of  our  sight.  The  voice  speaks  out  of  it. 
And  on  the  other  side  of  it  is  the  wide  spiritual  taber 
nacle,  that  has  no  need  of  the  sun,  or  the  moon,  or  the 
stars, — where  worship,  before  the  throne  of  God  and 
the  Lamb,  John  and  Peter  and  James  and  Moses  and 
Elias,  and  "  a  multitude  that  no  man  can  number  "  ! 


SEKMON    XI. 

CHRISTIAN  LONELINESS. 

I   HAVE   TRODDEN   THE   WINE-PRESS   ALONE.  —  Is.  Ixiii.  3. 

LIKE  much  of  the  most  impressive  language,  both  in 
the  Bible  and  in  general  writing,  this  sentence  affects 
us  rather  by  what  it  dimly  suggests  than  by  what  it 
directly  expresses.  Nor  is  this  a  mere  secondary  or 
accidental  property  of  language.  It  is  one  of  the  prime 
uses  affixed  to  it  by  the  Author  of  all  language.  In  a 
similar  way,  you  have  noticed  how  the  commonest 
objects  take  on  attributes  and  exercise  influences  not 
at  all  accounted  for  by  their  material  substance.  The 
house  where  you  were  born  speaks  to  you ;  and  it  says 
what  cannot  be  explained  by  the  wood  and  mortar  and 
iron  that  compose  the  structure,  nor  by  the  shape  into 
which  architecture  has  fashioned  them.  Its  language 
is  eloquent  with  the  immaterial  voice,  the  unwritten 
poetry,  and  the  fleeting  images  that  cluster  about  those 
two  lyric  names,  Home  and  Childhood.  The  Bible  that 
your  mother  gave  you  borrows  its  beauty  from  no  skill 
of  the  book-maker's  art,  and  it  has  sent  in  a  nameless 
significance  upon  your  heart  before  you  open  its  leaves. 
So  it  is  that  all  language  possesses  itself  of  a  spiritual 
character,  and  works  effects  like  a  living  soul.  And 


1 


CHRISTIAN   LONELINESS.  203 

this  is  pre-eminently  true  of  words  addressed  to  the 
religious  nature,  such  as  hymns,  parables,  prophecies. 

The  text  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  examples. 
"  I  have  trodden  the  wine-press  alone."  Taken  liter 
ally,  this  is  a  sentence  quite  barren  to  us,  or  even 
worse.  Difference  of  climate  and  customs  has  taken 
all  literal  interest  out  of  it.  Yet  under  the  law  of  sug 
gestion  referred  to,  it  becomes  forcible  and  significant. 
We  may  have  never  seen  a  wine-press,  nor  even  be 
anxious  to  inquire  who  the  person  is  that  is  speaking. 
And  yet  every  one  of  us  probably  takes  an  impression, 
and  the  same  impression,  from  those  words.  What  is 
the  figure  they  summon  up  before  us  all  ?  Probably 
that  of  a  man  left  to  solitary  toil,  deserted  but  not 
faithless,  having  a  heavy  burden  to  bear,  and  bearing  it 
uncheered  by  social  sympathy,  —  a  hard  and  bitter 
work  to  do,  yet  nobly  doing  it  alone.  From  this  image 
our  minds  pass  unconsciously  over  to  the  solitude  of 
our  spiritual  strifes  and  inward  sufferings.  We  in 
stantly  and  universally  recognize  in  him  who  "  trod  the 
wine-press  alone  "  a  representative  of  all  our  internal 
work. 

My  position  is  this  :  that,  for  a  religious  purpose,  and 
as  a  part  of  God's  spiritual  discipline  with  us,  our  deep 
est  experiences  must  be  passed  through  in  solitude. 
We  must  suffer  alone,  we  must  get  wisdom  alone,  we 
must  be  renewed  in  the  inmost  spirit  of  our  minds 
alone,  we  must  resist  temptation  alone,  we  must  medi 
tate  alone  and  pray  alone,  and  we  must  pass  through 
the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  alone.  Some  degree 
of  solitude  is  a  necessary  condition  of  all  these  great 
acts.  We  cannot  expect  companionship  in  them ;  we 
must  not  lean  too  much  upon  human  sympathy  in 


204  CHRISTIAN   LONELINESS. 

them.  It  is  a  fact  of  our  constitution.  Some  strength 
ening  results  will  be  found,  I  hope,  in  veins  of  thought 
opening  out  of  this  truth. 

It  was  a  distorted  perception  of  that  truth  that  gave 
what  value  they  had  to  the  old  systems  of  monasticism, 
or  religious  retirement.  These  ancient  practices  our 
modern  times  have,  for  the  most  part,  reversed.  If  a 
man  is  much  alone  now,  it  must  be  rather  by  a  direct 
effort  to  that  end  than  by  popular  habits.  Some  such 
effort  will  be  salutary  to  his  virtue.  This  sweeping 
tendency  to  social  agglomeration,  wholesome  as  it  is 
within  bounds,  will  be  all  the  more  wholesome  for 
being  occasionally  resisted.  If  its  direct  action  is  to 
harmonize  the  many,  and  combine  scattered  forces,  the 
effect  of  an  independent  superiority  to  it  will  be  to 
emancipate  the  individual  judgment,  and  make  solid  the 
personal  character.  Social  habits  may  soften  asperities ; 
but  it  needs  solitude  to  settle  our  principles.  Social 
habits  may  make  us  good-natured ;  but  to  get  certainty 
for  our  ideas,  or  assurance  for  our  faith,  we  must  be 
alone.  The  stronger  traits,  the  more  rugged  and 
manly  virtues,  powers  of  endurance,  energies  for  moral 
enterprise,  are  never  developed  except  in  such  balanced 
spirits  as  have  been  thrown  back  much  upon  solitude 
and  themselves.  The  friction  of  society  may  smooth 
down  individual  peculiarities,  but  there  are  such  things 
as  a  smoothness  that  is  insipid,  and  a  compliance  that 
is  so  accommodating  as  to  be  cowardly.  If  constant 
intercourse  with  others  neutralizes  our  prejudices,  it 
may  also  undermine  our  simplicity,  coax  our  kindly 
sentiments  into  vicious  compromises,  and  tempt  our 
integrity  out  of  its  self-possession  into  disgraceful  bar 
gains.  If  we  learn  amiability  in  the  mixed  company, 


CHRISTIAN  LONELINESS. 


205 


so  do  we  learn  what  stanch  and  steadfast  convictions 
are  by  standing  alone.  If  we  form  delightful  connec 
tions  in  the  one,  so  do  we  gain  the  nobler  faculty  of 
thinking  for  ourselves,  acting  for  ourselves,  and  believ 
ing  for  ourselves,  in  the  other. 

At  a  period  when  the  activities  of  associate  enterprise 
threaten  Christian  individuality  with  so  many  perils,  — 
in  a  place  where  the  personal  sense  of  right  is  beleaguer 
ed  and  solicited  by  so  many  plausibilities,  —  among  cus 
toms  where  majorities  take  the  place  of  single-headed 
tyrants,  and  the  bribe  of  promotion  bewilders  the  clear 
sightedness  of  faith,  —  let  us  look  to  our  integrity.  It  is 
useless  to  talk  of  character,  at  all,  if  we  are  to  go  on 
measuring  ourselves  by  one  another,  and  asking  our 
neighbors  how  far  it  will  do  to  go  in  breasting  the  cur 
rent,  or  anxiously  querying  with  ourselves  how  many 
friends,  or  favors,  or  votes,  or  offices, —  how  large  a 
piece  of  "  the  world,"  —  we  shall  have  to  lose  by  taking 
sides  with  Christ,  instead  of  striking  out  boldly,  and 
committing  ourselves  unreservedly,  in  faith,  to  his 
cause.  If  we  are  set,  in  earnest,  on  escaping  from 
delusions  and  sins,  we  cannot  afford  to  wait  for  the 
multitude.  If  we  would  walk  with  clean  steps,  we 
must  gird  ourselves  for  a  solitary  march  ;  if  we  would 
find  God,  and  be  his  children,  and  have  the  great 
reward  of  his  presence,  we  must  "  enter  into  the  closet, 
and  shut  the  door,  and  pray  to  the  Father  who  is  in 
secret." 

I  do  not  forget  the  obvious  arguments  for  association, 
nor  the  often  quoted  benefits  of  a  union  of  minds.  Let 
them  stand  for  their  undoubted  worth.  It  is  clear  that 
Christian  faith  wins  some  of  its  noblest  victories  only 
in  social  revivals.  But  let  it  be  also  remembered  that 

18 


206  CHRISTIAN   LONELINESS. 

a  concentration  of  the  individual  will  upon  its  own 
chosen  purpose,  such  as  a  man  never  gets  except  by 
isolating  himself,  is  a  matter  of  as  much  moment  to 
the  success  of  every  good  interest  in  the  world  as  the 
contact  of  numbers.  Who  would  not  prize  more  highly 
the  solemn  determination  of  a  single  independent  mind, 
taken  and  weighed  and  perfected  in  solitude,  unswayed 
by  public  dictation,  and  incorrupt  from  the  hot  breath 
of  crowds,  than  the  longest  subscription-list  to  a  set 
of  written  or  concocted  measures,  or  the  enthusiastic 
"  resolutions  "  of  the  loudest  caucus  ?  Let  it  be  fur 
ther  remembered,  that  if  combinations  of  masses  are 
promotive  of  good  causes,  they  are  also  mighty  facili 
ties  for  bad  ones.  If  they  create,  they  can  destroy ;  if 
societies  are  agencies  potent  to  bless  the  world  with 
reformations,  mobs  may  also  confound  it  with  new  mis 
chiefs.  And  the  grandest  regulator  of  their  shifting 
play  is  in  those  firm  convictions  that  strike  their  roots 
in  the  soil  of  lonely  meditation. 

Providence  will  doubtless  amply  vindicate  itself  for 
making  men  gregarious  ;  and  our  multiplying  methods 
of  intercommunication  leave  no  stimulus  to  that  side 
of  our  nature  unsupplied.  There  are  two  extremes ; 
and  at  times  we  are  moved  to  say,  0,  if  we  were  as 
ready  to  deliberate  as  to  combine,  —  to  study  and  reflect, 
as  to  organize  societies,  —  to  live  righteously  and  pray 
to  God  in  secret,  as  to  hide  our  individuality  in  frater 
nities  and  escape  the  responsibility  of  our  free  will  in 
public  meetings,  —  we  might  hope  for  a  speedier  advent 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

This  truth  may  enter  more  readily  if  we  remember 
that  the  higher  intellectual  qualities  —  those  that  are 
more  intimately  related  to  the  moral,  and  thus  have  the 


CHRISTIAN   LONELINESS. 


207 


largest  agency  in  forming  character  —  depend  on  soli 
tude  for  their  most  successful  cultivation.  Judgment, 
imagination,  clearness  and  consistency  of  thought, 
breadth  of  vision,  whatever  constitutes  the  originality 
and  natural  force  of  the  mind,  —  these  are  all  nurtured 
in  lonely  studies.  The  stream  may  sparkle  and  widen 
in  the  hot  glare  of  public  engagements,  but  the  peren 
nial  springs  whence  all  its  waters  are  supplied  must  be 
up  among  the  cool  and  shaded  heights  of  solitude.  The 
biography  of  nearly  all  those  master-intellects  that  have 
left  a  deep  mark  on  human  affairs  brings  testimony 
that  at  some  period  of  their  lives  they  were  cast  much 
apart  from  men,  and  made  to  rely  on  their  own  re 
sources,  and  on  the  powers  unseen  and  eternal.  One  of 
the  most  remarkable  of  them  all,  the  life  of  a  leader 
in  English  literature,  contains  this  testimony,  in  his  own 
words:  "If,  after  the  model  of  the  Emperor  Marcus 
Aurelius,  I  should  return  thanks  to  Providence  for  all 
the  blessings  of  my  early  situation,  one  of  the  very  first 
I  should  recall,  as  chiefly  worthy  to  be  commemorated, 
would  be  that  I  lived  in  solitude."  A  very  appreciative 
critic  of  art,  a  man  who  studies  the  beautiful  through 
the  eyes  of  his  heart  as  well  as  through  his  scientific 
understanding,  has  said  that  he  always  chooses  to  walk 
through  galleries  of  great  works  imaccompanied ;  for 
the  reason  that  conversation  belittles  every  subject, 
enfeebles  the  judgment,  and  fritters  admiration  away. 
In  the  lives  of  all  the  strong  thinkers  that  have  ren 
dered  great  services  to  science,  by  discovery,  by  original 
combinations,  by  concentrated  force,  there  has  been  a 
preparation  of  solitary  study,  a  youth  given  to  the  habit 
of  retirement.  Can  you  find  a  single  exception  ?  So, 
emphatically,  of  those  best  persons,  who  by  the  com- 


208  CHRISTIAN   LONELINESS. 

bined  weight  of  intellectual  and  moral  attributes  have 
been  the  signal  reformers  or  builders  of  institutions. 
Affecting  society  far  and  wide,  they  did  not  gather  their 
best  power  in  social  resorts,  but  alone  with  Heaven : 
Paul,  three  years  in  Arabia ;  Luther,  in  his  cell ;  Alfred, 
in  the  Island  of  Nobles.  Mahomet,  Columbus,  Wash 
ington, —  their  youth  was  apart  from  men  ;  their  career 
was  baptized  and  initiated  in  the  air  of  retirement. 
And  of  the  great  Lord  of  all  the  divine  ministry  to  the 
world  must  begin  with  forty  days  in  the  wilderness. 

If  being  alone  is  tributary  to  intellectual  greatness  it 
is  still  more  so  to  the  proper  symmetry  and  health  of 
the  moral  principles.  -  Every  soul  that  has  had  any 
moral  experience  whatever  must  know  that  the  best 
elements  in  his  composition  are  those  derived  from 
passages  in  his  life  where  no  second  could  keep  his 
soul  company,  —  where  he  must  be  alone  ;  disappoint 
ments  that  he  must  suffer  alone ;  difficulties  that  he 
must  face  alone  ;  reflections  where  he  must  look  to  his 
own  soul  and  his  God  alone.  Two  conditions  have  af 
fixed  themselves  to  the  history  of  moral  reformers  and 
heroes  :  they  have  first  been  overshadowed  by  the  great 
ideas  for  the  redemption  of  humanity  which  have  filled 
their  souls,  in  solitary  thinking;  and  when  they  have 
gone  out  on  their  beneficent  errands,  they  have  had  to 
work  alone, — confront  apathy  and  opposition  unsupport 
ed  by  the  sympathies  of  any  multitude.  Is  it  not  inevi 
table  to  infer  that  this  very  separation  from  outward 
props  has  lent  them  inward  victory  ?  Superiority  to 
slavish  customs,  single-hearted  allegiance  to  the  invisi 
ble  Right,  —  the  mind  that  makes  and  the  sensitive 
conscience  that  respects  moral  discriminations,  —  these 
are  fruits  of  treading  the  wine-press  alone. 


CHRISTIAN   LONELINESS.  209 

Still  more  strictly  does  this  rule  hold  of  the  deeper 
emotions.  And  as  these  are  the  most  spiritual  motions 
within  us,  they  prove  how  close  the  kindred  is  between 
solitude  and  spirituality  of  character.  The  loftiest 
of  'all  our  possible  emotions  is  religious  reverence, 
expressing  itself  in  worship,  or  prayer.  This  com 
munion  with  Heaven  is  inseparably  associated  with 
secrecy.  It  has  been  ever  since  worship  took  its  Chris 
tian  ordination  from  him  who  said,  "  Enter  into  thy 
closet ; "  ever  since  the  Lord  God  spoke  with  Adam 
alone  in  the  garden,  in  the  cool  of  the  day. 

Nature  has  herself  given  a  broad  hint  of  this  truth, 
in  making  it  absolutely  impossible  for  us  to  express  to 
any  mortal  the  deepest  feeling.  She  indicates  our  duty 
by  making  even  some  inferior  kinds  of  veneration  too 
deep  for  utterance,  —  "too  deep"  sometimes  even 
"for"  the  utterance  of  "tears."  Just  when  she  dis 
closes  to  our  perceptions  any  of  her  grandest  pictures, 
she  shuts  our  lips.  "Whenever  she  stirs  our  sense  of 
the  sublime,  she  sternly  tells  us,  "  My  children,  be 
dumb ! "  When  we  are  most  profoundly  moved  in 
any  way,  she  thus  prisons  our  hearts  in  a  practical 
solitude,  at  least,  and  we  feel  the  utter  helplessness  of 
our  tongues.  If  we  are  so  presumptuous  as  to  speak, 
we  feel  instantly  rebuked  for  the  foolishness  of  our  bab 
bling.  The  less  imposing,  the  smaller  and  lighter  as 
pects  of  nature,  permit  us  to  be  sociable  ;  but  when  her 
more  majestic  voice  sounds,  our  impertinent  ones  must 
be  still.  A  lively  company  may  talk  and  jest  as  they 
float  among  the  winding  threads  of  a  picturesque  har 
bor,  —  shut  in  by  the  limitations  of  that  narrow  scen 
ery  ;  but,  if  they  have  souls  within  them,  they  will  grow 
thoughtful  and  be  silent  as  they  sail  out  upon  the  infi- 

18=* 


210  CHRISTIAN   LONELINESS. 

nito  sea,  amidst  the  boundless  simplicity  of  the  waves 
and  the  sky.  Or  they  may  chatter  and  laugh  together 
in  the  variegated  and  blooming  valley ;  but  when  they 
go  up  among  the  everlasting  hills  of  God,  and  stand  on 
those  solemn  pillars  of  his  arch,  an  invisible  Hand  will 
seem  to  draw  them  apart  from  one  another,  and  fill 
them  with  a  wonder  that  cannot  be  uttered.  They 
may  prattle  the  gossip  of  the  drawing-room  in  gardens 
of  sunshine,  but  the  roll  of  celestial  thunder  will  hush 
their  empty  levity  with  awe.  It  is  because  the  grand 
eurs  of  creation  take  us  nearest  to  the  Creator. 

So,  whenever  the  uplifted  soul  approaches  God  in 
its  sincerest  devotion,  it  must  go  alone;  if  other  souls 
bend  around,  in  unity  of  spirit,  yet  the  communion  of 
each  with  the  Father  is  solitary,  and  each  must  be 
accepted  not  for  another,  but  by  itself.  It  must  bear 
its  own  single  burden  to  the  mercy-seat.  "  Hast  thou 
faith,  have  it  to  thyself  before  God."  The  prayer  must 
rise  from  a  heart  leaning  on  no  earthly  arm,  —  even  as 
it  goes  up  to  a  Spirit  of  whom  it  is  written  that  "  He  is 
God  alone,"  and  that  He  "  alone  doeth  great  wonders." 

Impatience  of  solitude  is  a  bad  religious  sign.  Who 
ever  dreads  to  be  alone  has  reason  to  dread  the  here 
after.  If  he  is  afraid  of  being  left  to  himself,  how  shall 
he  dare  to  meet  the  searching  of  his  Judge  ?  It  be 
comes  quite  indispensable  to  the  wholesomeness  of  a 
man's  spirit,  that  he  should  escape  from  crowds.  As 
much  moral  peril  as  physical  lurks  in  the  air  and  poi 
sons  the  breath  of  dense  communities.  Too  much 
company  scatters  the  sublimity  of  the  human  will ;  it 
intoxicates  the  sober  reason ;  it  natters  pride ;  it 
debauches  the  conscience  ;  it  puts  our  independence 
under  a  base  apprenticeship  to  the  popular  caprice ; 


CHRISTIAN   LONELINESS.  211 

it  sets  our  steadiest  purposes  whiffling  in  every  wind. 
And  so  it  happens  that  the  mind  whose  habit  is 
to  dwell  habitually  in  mixed  assemblages  of  men  is 
overtaken,  by  and  by,  with  a  humiliating  sense  of  hav 
ing  squandered  itself.  That  is  the  foretaste  of  its  after 
retribution.  And  remember  this^  that  if  your  sensi 
bility  fails  to  be  thus  mortified  for  its  immodesties,  it  is 
for  the  alarming  reason  that  the  defection  from  truth 
has  been  so  wide  that  the  simplicity  of  the  soul  has 
been  lost  amidst  the  necromancy  of  the  senses  ;  dissipa 
tion  has  luxuriated  into  satisfaction ;  remorse  has  been 
gossipped  out  of  being,  and  perpetual  publicity,  after 
drenching  the  character  in  exposure,  has  left  it  too  soft 
in  fibre  for  resistance,  — too  shameless  for  self-reproach. 
Yes  :  something  must  have  gone  terribly  wrong  with 
us,  if  we  are  afraid  to  be  shut  up  with  none  but  God. 
They  are  not  valiant  souls  that  are  frightened  to  find 
themselves  in  the  unfamiliar  and  strong  hands  of  his 
Truth,  shaking  their  false  proprieties,  oversetting  their 
timid  hiding-places,  and  tearing  open  dangerous  conceal 
ments.  It  is  a  stern  safety ;  and  to  shuffle  ourselves 
out  of  it  into  the  superficial  intimacies  where  we  are 
more  at  home  is  not  the  way  to  maturity  of  spiritual 
life.  It  is  the  way  of  evasion.  There  is  no  escape  from 
the  law  that  makes  the  work  of  regeneration  into  higher 
spiritual  states  personal,  reserved,  separate.  There  is 
no  social  salvation  excusing  the  individual.  Society  is  a 
great  interest,  but  it  can  never  shift  responsibility  from 
you  and  me.  Men  must  go  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
if  they  go  at  all,  just  as  they  go  into  any  grand  experi 
ence,  —  be  born  again  just  as  they  are  born  into  the 
life  that  now  is,  —  one  by  one,  and  each  for  himself. 
The  fight  with  the  adversary  is  a  single  combat,  after 


212  CHRISTIAN  LONELINESS. 

all.  What  earnest  men  want  is  not  flatteries  and  pag 
eants,  but  the  simple  and  steady  verities  that  they  can 
stand  on  for  eternity. 

Nay,  this  is  demanded  from  us  in  mere  fidelity  to 
Truth  herself;  for  when  we  begin  to  esteem  her  for  the 
multitudes  she  fascinates,  when  we  begin  to  count  up 
her  adherents  and  ask  whether  she  draws  large  audi 
ences,  we  have  already  broken  from  the  true  loyalty. 
Next  to  the  sordidness  of  wedding  Truth  for  her  dowry, 
which  Stillingfleet  satirizes,  is  that  of  choosing  her 
because  all  the  world  admires  her.  We  need  to  remem 
ber —  we  of  this  public  age,  we  of  these  supple  times 
—  that  very  often  the  living  energy  of  an  idea  is  not 
proved  till  it  is  voted  down.  For  when  it  rises  again,  a 
resurrection-power  is  born  with  it.  So  the  finest  quali 
ties  of  persons  are  not  developed,  sometimes,  till  they 
are  crowded  out  of  favor,  and  banished  into  a  minority. 
Good  men  have  very  often  to  be  ridiculed  and  thwarted, 
all  their  lives  through,  and  their  vindicator  never 
comes  till  their  coffin  comes.  Where  conscience  counts 
her  ten  that  are  willing  to  save  a  city,  popular  compli 
ance  has  counted  her  ten  thousand  willing  to  ruin  it, 
and  be  ruined  with  it.  But,  then,  principle  does  not 
count  men  ;  she  weighs  them.  If  numbers  tested  truth, 
there  never  was  a  time,  since  history  began,  when  false 
hood  would  not  have  been  on  the  throne,  and  right  in 
exile  or  at  the  block.  We  have  got  to  do  Christ's  work, 
in  the  world  and  for  the  world,  without  anticipating  the 
world's  verdict,  or  we  shall  never  do  it  at  all. 

A  Christian  loneliness,  the  solitude  that  has  Christ 
in  it,  renews  man's  strength.  It  fortifies  his  reso 
lution.  It  establishes  his  peace.  It  clears  away  the 
dust  of  the  earth's  day-delusions  and  the  damps  of  its 


CHRISTIAN   LONELINESS.  213 

night-sorrows.  It  enables  us  to  look  abroad  with  an  tin- 
troubled  eye  on  the  future.  It  makes  the  mind  popu 
lous  with  beautiful  imagery  from  regions  of  the  invisible. 
It  sends  the  thoughts  011  cheerful  pilgrimages  to  all  the 
holy  shrines  of  the  Bible  and  the  universe.  It  lets  in 
happy  memories  through  the  open  door  of  our  aifections 
to  console  our  misery,  and  blessed  promises  to  animate 
our  faith.  The  Father  is  with  us. 

"  1  have  trodden  the  wine-press  alone."  Human  suf 
fering,  in  all  its  forms,  is  solitary.  Tenderest  sympa 
thies  may  flock  abundantly  and  graciously  to  visit  it 
and  minister  to  it.  But  there  is  something  in  it  that 
their  kindest  offices  cannot  reach ;  something  appointed 
by  Providence  to  be  left  alone  ;  and  it  is  well.  Bear 
holy  witness,  all  you  who  have  been  purified  by  heavenly 
discipline,  and  found  your  light  afflictions  turning  to  an 
exceeding  weight  of  glory,  and  the  sadness  of  your 
countenance  prophesying  crowns  of  life,  —  bear  witness 
that  it  is  well !  Grief  is  of  many  kinds,  but  all  grief 
that  is  really  terrible  sends  the  soul  into  speechless, 
secret  solitude.  Human  love  may  reach  out  ready 
hands,  eager  to  help  and  to  soothe ;  but  it  cannot  reach 
down  to  that  lowest  centre  of  anguish  where  the  pang 
throbs  in  intensest  pain.  So  true  is  it  that  the  heart 
knoweth  its  own  bitterness,  that  not  only  the  stranger, 
but  the  friend,  cannot  intermeddle  with  its  distress. 
Here  is  a  healthful  group  of  confiding  friends  ;  so  long 
as  they  are  glad  and  well,  every  shade  of  happy  feeling 
may  be  mutually  communicated  and  shared.  But  let 
sickness  stretch  one  of  them  in  wasting  fever,  and,  as 
the  dark  mystery  of  disease  closes  round  the  clouded 
senses,  there  rises  up  a  silent  wall  of  impenetrable 
loneliness  between  the  sufferer  and  the  watchers.  There 


214  CHRISTIAN   LONELINESS. 

are  experiences  busy  in  that  failing  frame  that  cannot 
be  told,  thoughts  that  cannot  possibly  pass  over  from 
one  to  the  other.  I  have  seen  a  sick  child  that  was  so 
frank  by  nature  that  concealment  was  all  impossible  to 
her,  and  yet,  when  the  solemn  spell  of  dissolution  was 
coming  slowly  down  upon  the  features,  no  entreaties  of 
affection,  not  the  longings  of  trusted  parents  and  loving 
sisters,  could  draw  out  from  that  august  silence  one 
whisper  of  the  struggle  where  life  and  death  were 
wrestling  for  the  mastery. 

"  She  saw  a  hand  we  could  not  see, 
She  heard  a  voice  we  could  not  hear, 
It  beckoned  her  away." 

Even  the  little  child  must  tread  the  wine-press  alone. 
By  some  it  has  been  believed  that  the  young  spirit  has 
a  consciousness  of  this,  and  feels  "  that  if  he  should  be 
summoned  to  travel  into  God's  presence,  no  gentle 
nurse  will  be  allowed  to  lead  him  by  the  hand,  nor 
mother  to  carry  him  in  her  arms,  nor  little  sister  to 
share  his  trepidations.  King  and  priest,  warrior  and 
maiden,  philosopher  and  child,  all  must  walk  those 
mighty  galleries  alone."  It  is  always  so ;  no  cries  of 
friendship  can  break  the  sacred  stillness  of  the  dying, 
or  bring  back  more  than  some  short  syllable  of  excla 
mation.  Let  faith  believe  that  this  significant  reserve 
in  the  depths  of  a  great  experience  is  meant  to  chasten 
our  patience,  to  bid  us  wait  with  calmer  hope  our 
resurrection. 

Bereavements — I  need  hardly  tell  you  what  the  truly 
bereaved  know  so  well,  and  what  none  but  they  can 
understand  at  all  —  must  be  borne,  after  all  attempts 
at  participation,  essentially  alone.  And  the  falling 
away  of  those  nearest  to  us,  whether  by  the  coldness  of 


CHRISTIAN   LONELINESS.  215 

changed  love  away  from  ourselves,  or  through  disgrace 
away  from  honor,  must  most  emphatically  be  suffered 
alone.  The  world's  mightiest  tasks  of  reformation  and 
regeneration  have  to  be  wrought  out  when  lookers-on 
refuse  their  friendship,  and  the  workers  in  them  stand 
misunderstood,  misinterpreted,  reviled,  persecuted, 
alone.  All  the  deliverers  of  mankind  from  wrong  and 
sin  must  be  men  of  sorrows  and  solitude,  following 
the  Saviour  who  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head.  Even 
of  that  divine  Redeemer,  who  laid  down  his  life  for 
our  sanctification,  how  often  do  we  read  that  he  went 
away  alone  to  be  strengthened  ;  that  when  night  came 
he  was  alone  ;  that  he  went  apart  to  pray !  What  lone 
liness  in  his  spirit  at  the  supper  —  let  the  table,  as  often 
as  it  is  spread  before  us,  refresh  our  remembrance  — 
when  he  said,  "  All  ye  shall  be  offended  because  of  me 
this  night ; "  and  on  the  cross,  when  he  prayed  in  agony 
that  the  Father  "  might  not  forsake  him  "  ! 

"  I  have  trodden  the  wine-press  alone."  Alone  we 
must  go,  brethren,  and  be  prepared  to  go  by  prayer  and 
faith,  through  all  the  deeper  and  more  solemn  exi 
gencies  of  our  life ;  alone  through  besetting  temptation, 
and  the  loss  of  what  is  most  precious ;  alone  through  the 
defection  of  friends  and  through  personal  discourage 
ment  ;  alone  to  the  judgments  of  the  Most  High ;  alone 
from  thence  to  reap  as  each  hath  sown. 

Take,  then,  to  close  and  seal  the  truth  we  have  pon 
dered,  these  two  convictions : 

Solitude  is  a  means  of  spiritual  education.  Seek  it ; 
ordain  it ;  cherish  it ;  value  it  not  for  its  own  sake,  but 
for  faith's  sake  and  Christ's  sake  ;  sanctify  your  life  by 
the  prayers  it  will  then  inspire.  Do  not  take  these 
thoughts  as  mere  secondary  suggestions  about  the  out- 


216  CHRISTIAN   LONELINESS. 

side  of  religion.  They  have  to  do  with  its  very  core  and 
spirit, — its  spiritualities,  its  devotions,  its  regenerating 
power  on  the  soul.  In  order  to  let  the  great  truths  and 
influences  of  religion  do  their  work  upon  us,  we  must 
put  ourselves  in  the  range  and  sweep  of  their  action; 
we  must  —  so  to  speak  —  give  them  a  chance  at  our 
inner  life.  The  street  is  no  such  place ;  the  crowd  is 
no  such  place.  Enter  into  thy  closet. 

Couple  with  this  truth  another:  that  as  you  draw 
yourself  apart  from  the  noise  of  men,  you  draw  near  to 
God.  Enter  into  thy  closet,  and  when  thou  hast  shut  the 
door,  pray.  Pray  to  thy  Father  which  is  "  in  secret." 
When  human  companionships  forsake  thee,  the  Lord 
will  take  thee  up.  Herein,  precisely,  lies  the  unfathomed 
meaning  of  that  Eternal  word  of  Christ,  "All  ye," 
mortal  friends,  "  shall  be  scattered  every  man  to  his 
own,  and  shall  leave  me  alone  ; " — alone  from  men,  and 
"  yet  not  alone  "  from  Heaven,  because  "  the  Father  is 
with  me."  Absent  and  distant  from  the  world ;  nearer 
and  nearer  to  God !  So  it  shall  be  in  all  the  wine-press 
and  trial  of  your  faith.  Even  in  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  though  alone  in  the  former  sense,  in 
the  latter  compassed  about  with  brightness,  and  fearing 
no  evil,  his  rod  and  his  staff  shall  comfort  you. 


SERMON    XII. 

SAINTHOOD  IN  CAESAR'S  HOUSEHOLD. 

THE    SAINTS    THAT    ARE    OF    C/ESAIl'S    HOUSEHOLD.  — Phil.  iv.    22. 

THIS  incidental  allusion  informs  us  that  already,  in 
Paul's  day,  there  were  Christian  disciples  in  the  Pagan 
palace  of  the  world.  Jesus  was  confessed,  it  seems,  not 
only  "before  men,"  but  before  emperors,  —  men  that, 
in  irresponsible  power  and  savage  cruelty,  had  almost 
lost  the  nature  of  men. 

Faith  has  won  its .  grandest  conquests  on  straitened 
and  sorrowful  fields.  If  the  strength  and  joy  of  believ 
ing  are  proportioned  to  the  weight  of  the  crosses  borne 
for  it,  —  and  such  a  rule  as  that  does  appear  to  have 
place  in  the  spiritual  economy,  —  then  it  is  in  some 
such  post  of  perplexity  as  a  Caesar's  household,  some 
age  of  persecution  or  close  corner  of  peril,  that  we 
must  look  for  the  bravest  witnesses  to  truth.  So  keenly 
has  this  been  felt  by  some  adventurous  souls,  that  they 
have  positively  longed  for  fiercer  onsets  of  trial  than 
our  common  and  easy  fortunes  bring,  giving  their  relig 
ious  constancy  a  chance  to  prove  itself  invincible.  Sir 
Thomas  Browne,  with  his  unbounded  veneration,  had 
an  appetite  so  hungry  for  this  stimulus  to  trust,  that  he 
says,  in  one  of  the  passages  of  his  Treatise  011  the  Relig 
ion  of  a  Physician,  "  I  bless  myself  and  am  thankful 

19 


218  SAINTHOOD  IN   OESAR'S   HOUSEHOLD. 

that  I  lived  not  in  the  days  of  miracles,  and  that  I 
never  saw  Christ  nor  his  disciples ;  for  then  my  faith 
would  have  been  thrust  upon  me,  and  I  could  not  have 
enjoyed  that  greater  blessing  promised  to  all  that  see 
not  and  yet  believe."  He  envies  the  old  Hebrews  their 
title  to  the  only  bold  and  noble  faith,  since  they  lived 
before  the  Saviour's  coming,  and  gathered  their  confit 
dence  out  of  mystical  types  and  obscure  prophecies. 
Modern  society  does  not  abound  in  instances  of  such 
enthusiasm  for  believing.  More  persons  seem  to  be  ask 
ing  what  is  the  minimum  of  faith  that  can  be  made  to 
serve  for  safety,  —  how  much  knowledge  will  release 
them  from  here,  and  divine  indulgence  there,  —  than 
how  affluent  a  measure  they  may  be  privileged  to  keep 
in  reserve.  We  eulogize  virtues  that  flourish  only  in  a 
favoring  soil  and  climate.  We  palliate  and  excuse  the 
deficiency,  when  honesty  is  missing  in  the  household  of 
Csesar,  —  in  seats  of  power  or  wealth  or  folly,  in  office 
or  at  court,  in  Washington  or  in  Paris.  We  forget  that 
the  current  piety  of  the  Church,  of  society,  and  of  the 
market  sinks  and  dwindles  inevitably,  unless  it  is 
replenished  by  the  energy  of  those  valiant  examples 
which  will  dare  to  bear  testimony  and  be  true  in  the 
very  palaces  of  power  and  fashion  and  mammon. 

Of  the  line  of  Roman  Caesars,  —  that  race  standing 
apart,  of  whom  it  has  been  well  said,  by  a  scholar  com 
petent  to  speak,  that  there  met  in  them  "  all  the  heights 
and  depths  which  belong  to  man,  all  the  contrasts  of 
glory  and  meanness,  the  extremities  of  what  is  highest 
and  lowest  in  human  possibility," — the  personage 
whom  Paul  speaks  of  here  as  having  saints  in  his  house 
hold  was  the  sixth  from  the  founder.  Nero  was  a 
prince  that  as  far  surpassed  others  in  infamy  as 


SAINTHOOD   IN   (LESAR'S   HOUSEHOLD.  219 

Augustus  did  in  royalty ;  a  man  who,  if  every  soul 
beside  himself  in  his  household  had  been  a  saint,  con 
centrated  inhumanity  and  pollution  enough  in  his  per 
son  to  have  darkened  all  their  virtue  by  the  blackness 
of  his  unnatural  crimes ;  a  man  that  expended  more 
ingenuity  in  contriving  new  modes  of  dishonoring 
humanity  than  most  Christians  have  in  serving  it,  and 
who  earned  the  reputation  of  introducing  into  history, 
as  facts,  crimes  so  enormous,  and  combinations  of  wick 
edness  so  revolting,  that  but  for  him  they  would  have 
been  held  too  fabulous  for  the  wildest  fancy ;  a  man 
that  hunted  up  and  down  his  vast  domains  to  find  some 
fresh  species  of  murder,  with  exquisite  and  aggravated 
accompaniments  enough  to  season  it  to  his  monstrous 
appetite,  with  the  same  eagerness  that  gluttons  search 
out  a  fresh  delicacy  for  a  sated  palate ;  a  man  that 
tried  three  different  ways  of  butchering  his  own  mother, 
and  at  last  despatched  her  by  a  vulgar  execution,  in  a 
petulant  rage  at  being  baffled  so  often  ;  and  who  added 
the  tyrant's  caprice  to  the  incendiary's,  by  undertaking 
at  once  to  throw  off  the  suspicion  of  his  own  agency  in 
the  diabolic  conflagration  of  his  capital,  and  to  comfort 
his  bloodthirsty  temper,  by  imputing  the  fire  to  the 
innocent  Christians ;  who  tortured  his  Christian  sub 
jects  by  unheard-of  torments,  dressing  them  in  the 
skins  of  wild  animals  to  provoke  dogs  to  tear  them  to 
pieces,  or  wrapping  their  bodies  in  clothing  smeared 
with  pitch,  and  then  setting  them  on  fire  to  light  up  the 
Roman  night  with  their  burning  ;  a  man,  in  short,  that 
wrought  so  awful  an  impression  of  his  attributes  of 
superhuman  atrocity  on  the  minds  of  the  believers  of 
that  age,  that  a  common  rumor  went  abroad  among 
them,  after  his  horrible  death,  that  he  would  return 


220  SAINTHOOD    IN    CAESAR'S   HOUSEHOLD. 

again  alive  to  vex  the  world  anew,  and  to  be  the  Anti 
christ  of  prophecy. 

In  the  household  of  such  a  man  and  such  a  Csesar  it 
was  that  the  Apostle,  himself  now  a  voluntary  prisoner 
at  Rome,  awaiting  his  trial  and  probably  his  martyr 
dom,  found  "saints,"  —  saints  that  he  mentions  with 
special  honor,  when  he  sends  their  message  in  his  let 
ter  to  the  friends  at  Philippi.  There,  and  then,  if 
nowhere  else  or  since,  we  can  all  feel  that  it  was  some 
thing  heroic  to  be  a  saint.  By  contrast  with  so  dark  a 
depravity,  and  in  the  teeth  of  so  relentless  a  spite, 
"  professing  Christ "  had  a  meaning ;  to  be  called  a 
Christian  cost  sacrifices  that  deserved  the  name.  Saint- 
ship  shone,  then,  with  a  palpable  glory ;  and  no  man 
could  fail  of  seeing  whence  the  light  came.  The  follow 
ers  of  the  Crucified,  and  the  lovers  of  the  world,  were 
separate  companies  of  souls  ;  the  sword  and  the  lions 
pronounced  the  distinction  between  them  with  emphasis. 
No  wonder  Paul  thanks  God  that  even  then  the  faith  of 
the  Roman  Christians  was  spoken  of  in  all  the  world. 

Across  the  chasm  of  almost  eighteen  hundred  years, 
beyond  an  ocean  that  is  narrowed  now  by  the  Christian 
civilization  which  those  saints  installed,  we  are  speaking 
of  it,  —  thanking  God,  too,  I  hope,  for  his  own  won 
drous  providence  in  his  Church,  —  thanking  Paul's  pen 
that  has  left  us  this  bright  trace  of  a  precious  mar- 
tyrology, — thanking  these  saints  of  Caesar's  household 
themselves,  for  the  mighty  arms  of  faith  which  they 
reach  over  to  us,  to  encourage  our  confidence,  to 
shame  our  unbelief,  to  reinspire  our  too  sluggish  zeal. 

Possibly  it  may  be  found  that  there  is  just  as  real  and 
deep  a  distinction  now  as  then,  between  him  who  serv- 
eth  God  and  loveth  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity, 


SAINTHOOD   IN   (LESAR'S    HOUSEHOLD.  221 

and  him  who  serveth  and  loveth  not.  Possibly  it  may 
appear  that  the  glory  of  an  actual  saintship,  the  verita 
bly  faithful  spirit,  is  just  as  pure  and  lustrous  now  as 
then.  Possibly  we  may  see  that  yet  there  are  saints  in 
Caesars'  households,  and  that  there  is  as  good  cause  to 
venerate  and  to  multiply  them,  as  when  the  gladiators 
waited  in  the  ring,  and  beasts  licked  up  their  blood 
from  the  sand. 

For,  the  substance  of  all  sainthood  that  has  vitality 
enough  to  survive  in  households  of  Caesar  is  this,  —  that 
its  virtue  is  so  built  on  interior  foundations,  and  its 
religious  faith  so  rooted  in  the  spiritual  source  and 
Divine  Master  of  its  life,  that  no  outward  opposition 
avails  to  break  it  down,  or  even  to  interrupt  its  worship. 
You  see,  at  once,  how  this  carries  the  spirit  of  it  out  of 
the  first  age,  and  beyond  Nero's  palace  ;  how  possible  it 
is,  and  how  much  wanted  also,  wherever  an  adverse 
influence  frowns  on  Christian  purity,  or  hinders  Chris 
tian  fidelity,  and  therefore  how  the  subject  is  reduced 
at  once  to  a  practical  study.  For  that  bad  influence 
may  proceed  from  things  not  held  in  much  suspicion ; 
—  from  a  false  social  standard ;  from  a  set  of  surround 
ing  associations  hostile  to  holiness ;  from  a  dominant 
worldliness  in  a  nation,  or  a  city,  or  a  college,  or  a  lit 
eral  household  ;  from  an  inhuman  course  of  legislation ; 
from  maxims  of  pretended  honor  really  barbarous ; 
from  customs  of  evasion  and  apology,  or  of  self-indul 
gence  and  sensual  excess,  of  profaneness  and  cruelty, 
that  creep  in  among  loosened  principles,  as  well  as  from 
courts  arid  tyrants'  thrones. 

There  are  three  or  four  special  traits  essential  to  this 
sainthood  in  Caesar's  household,  —  whoever  the  Caesar 
may  be,  and  wherever  his  house  may  stand.  The  first 

19* 


222  SAINTHOOD    IN   (LESAR'S   HOUSEHOLD. 

of  these,  we  shall  agree,  is  courage.  Christianity  has 
not  only  room,  but  favor,  for  every  noble  sentiment  in 
human  nature  ;  and  so  she  offers  even  to  the  veteran 
soldier,  and  to  the  enthusiastic  youth,  a  field  for  all  his 
bravery  grander  than  any  of  his  battles,  in  the  resist 
ance  of  moral  invasion.  Accordingly,  we  find  that, 
very  soon,  Christianity  seized  on  some  of  those  rough 
warriors  that  never  quailed  themselves,  but  had  terrified 
and  conquered  the  world.  Mention  is  incidentally 
made  of  one  convert  who  was  "  a  centurion  of  the  band 
called  the  Italian  band,"  and  some  of  these  believers 
about  the  person  of  Nero  must  probably  have  been 
guards  of  his  palace.  On  one  of  the  early  Christian 
monuments  at  Eome  there  is  an  epitaph  of  a  young 
military  officer,  saying  that  he  deemed  himself  "  to  have 
lived  long  enough  when  he  shed  his  blood  for  Christ." 
But  Christ's  religion  courts  no  consideration  from 
armies.  Its  courage  is  of  another  kind, — the  courage 
that  bears  wrong,  but  will  not  commit  it,  —  that  saves 
life,  rather  than  destroys  it.  It  is  a  courage  that  springs 
from  an  unspotted  conscience,  and  wins  the  triumphs  of 
generous  good-will ;  the  courage  that  goes  into  and 
out  of  all  companies,  counting-houses,  caucuses,  and 
churches,  with  an  uprightness  not  to  be  bent,  whether 
you  bring  threats,  or  sneers,  or  golden  baits  to  tempt  it; 
a  courage  that  lifts  up  an  unblenched  face  in  the  most 
formidable  array  of  difficulties,  satisfied  to  stand  on  the 
platform  of  the  New  Testament,  and  on  God's  side,  to 
listen  to  the  encouragement  of  the  beatitudes  and  to 
hold  to  the  breastplate  of  righteousness.  And,  as  I  sup 
pose  it  really  takes  about  as  much  unadulterated  forti 
tude,  if  all  things  are  brought  into  the  account,  for  a 
young  girl,  to-day,  to  maintain  a  truthful  and  devout 


SAINTHOOD   IN   CESAR'S   HOUSEHOLD.  223 

conversation, — that  is,  to  be  a  Christian,  —  as  it  did  for 
St.  Agnes  ;  or  for  a  student  to  carry  an  undenled  soul 
through  an  apprenticeship  or  a  university,  as  it  did  for 
Yigilius  to  go  by  night  from  his  post  in  the  palace  to 
hear  an  epistle  read  from  one  Paul  of  Tarsus,  when  it 
was  whispered  about  Rome  that  the  Apostle  had  sent  a 
letter  to  his  brethren  there ; — so  wherever  such  a  Chris 
tian  courage  in  duty  is,  there  will  be  saints  of  Caesar's 
household. 

And  if  there  are,  a  second  of  their  qualities,  always 
attending  the  highest  kind  of  courage,  but  very  difficult 
to  be  united  with  its  counterfeits,  you  will  find  to  be 
modesty.  It  does  not  appear  that  these  devout  persons 
in  Rome  set  themselves  up  to  revolutionize  religion,  or 
to  be  patterns  of  perfection.  They  did  not  call  them 
selves  saints ;  Paul  called  them  so.  They  did  not  boast 
of  their  religion  ;  there  was  too  much  solemn  sincerity 
in  it.  They  did  not  lurk  about  the  temples  of  idolatry, 
to  mock  its  soothsayers,  and  to  disseminate  self-righteous 
slanders  about  its  priesthood.  They  knew  the  joy  of 
their  own  believing,  and  the  blessedness  of  their  com 
munion  with  Jesus  ;  and  cared  more  for  fellowship  with 
the  Redeemer  than  for  admiration  from  the  citizens. 
That  was  their  Christian  modesty.  Disjoined  from 
their  fortitude,  it  might  have  degenerated  into  timidity. 
And  that  is  often  our  danger.  There  are  some  persons 
—  we  all  know  such  —  of  diffident  dispositions,  that  err 
in  not  mixing  enough  boldness  of  resistance  with  their 
good  nature  or  amiability.  They  remain  inefficient  dis 
ciples,  because  they  shrink  from  the  public  notice  of 
taking  up  the  cross.  This  is  to  turn  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  of  Christian  graces,  "  the  ornament  of  a  meek 
and  quiet  spirit,"  into  a  deformity  and  an  offence; 


224  SAINTHOOD   IN   CESAR'S   HOUSEHOLD. 

X 

it  robs  the  Master  of  the  testimony  that  is  his  due,  and 
it  glides  easily  into  a  selfish  and  sluggish  indifference. 
It  sometimes  happens  that  there  are  individuals  among 
us  placed  in  a  very  literal  resemblance  to  those  that 
were  saints  in  the  household  of  Cassar.  In  a  state  of 
society  like  ours,  nominally  Christian,  but  often  more 
careful  to  render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are 
Caasar's  than  unto  God  the  things  that  are  God's,  there 
will  occasionally  be  instances  of  single  believers  in 
large  groups  or  communities  of  practical  unbelievers. 
While  the  main  current  of  speech,  feeling,  and  habit 
runs  one  way,  and  that  to  self-pleasing,  some  one  living 
a  higher  life,  having  a  spiritual  aim,  pledged  secretly 
to  the  law  of  Christ,  and  devoutly  desiring  above  all 
things  to  take  up  the  cross  and  come  after  him,  is  sorely 
perplexed  with  the  trial  of  a  petty  and  cowardly  perse 
cution  from  those  that  ought  rather,  if  not  perverse  in 
their  depravity,  to  revere  the  better  heart  as  a  heavenly 
presence  amongst  them.  And  then  this  very  trait  of 
modesty,  a  virtue  in  its  place,  threatens  to  become  a 
traitor,  to  intimidate  the  trembling  purpose  and  draw 
back  the  soul  from  God  to  folly.  This  is  the  position  of 
all  threatened  minorities.  They  will  get  strength  for 
the  fiery  trial  by  going  back  to  see  how  the  inmates  of 
a  palace  full  of  gluttony,  licentiousness,  and  all  royal 
vices,  held  their  allegiance  fast. 

But  to  imitate  that  successful  blending  of  modesty 
and  courage,  they  will  want  a  third  quality,  namely, 
independence.  The  question  of  duty  once  settled,  all 
gates  but  that  which  leads  to  acting  it  out  must  be  shut. 
And  beyond  that  point,  all  arguments  from  custom, 
from  the  general  expectation,  from  popular  applause, 
from  public  or  private  gratification,  are  impertinent ;  as 


225 


much  so  as  for  the  little  band  to  hesitate  whether  they 
should  lose  caste  by  going  out  one  day  fifty  miles  from 
the  capital,  as  far  as  Appii  Forum,  to  meet  the  despised 
prisoner  who  was  conducted  in  from  an  Eastern  prov 
ince  as  an  accused  insurrectionist,  after  he  had  made 
Felix  tremble,  and  half  persuaded  Agrippa.  Remem 
ber,  they  were  living  in  the  centre  of  the  great  world's 
energy  and  splendor,  as  well  as  of  its  corruption,  and 
in  the  very  focus  of  its  intelligence,  as  well  as  iinder  its 
hottest  hatred.  Independence  was  a  virtue  quite  indis 
pensable  to  them ;  but  not  a  whit  more  so  than  to  us. 
For,  every  day,  Providence,  through  our  own  instincts, 
pushes  us  into  some  crisis  of  moral  peril,  where,  if  we 
do  not  act  simply  of  ourselves,  and  take  our  direction 
at  first  hand  from  the  Spirit,  our  integrity  itself  is  gone. 
And  superadded  to  independence  and  modesty  and 
courage  is  constancy  There  must  have  been  a  great 
many  days  when  it  would  have  been  easy,  and  very  con 
venient,  for  these  valiant  saints  in  Csesar's  household  to 
slip  round  into  the  old  comfortable  heathenism  again. 
Inducements  were  not  wanting.  For  the  ignorant  there 
was  personal  safety.  For  the  cultivated,  Seneca  was 
alive,  competent  to  commend  the  Pagan  philosophy  in 
its  purest  aspects  and  its  Stoic  severity,  and  professing 
himself  ambitious,  Jerome  said,  to  be  to  Heathendom 
what  Paul  was  to  the  Church.  But  they  held  fast. 
They  might  be  hunted  out  in  their  obscure  retreats, 
and  might  see  their  teachers  slaughtered,  as  good  Ste 
phen  once  was,  the  moment  the  benediction  had  passed 
his  lips ;  but  they  gathered  again,  the  next  evening,  and 
other  hands,  willing  to  be  mangled  by  the  same  martyr 
dom,  broke  to  them  the  bread  of  life.  The  Emperor 
might  send  them  out  to  build  his  baths  ;  they  raised  no 


226  SAINTHOOD   IN    CJESAR'S   HOUSEHOLD. 

civil  rebellion,  but,  while  they  bent  to  their  slavery, 
knelt  and  prayed  to  the  Father.  Arrows  might  pierce 
their  bodies  ;  but,  as  you  see  in  the  picture  of  Sebastian, 
they  believed  that  angels  would  draw  all  the  pain  of 
the  weapons  out,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  receive  their 
spirits.  Extermination  itself  would  not  alarm  them ; 
Diocletian  afterwards  fancied  he  had  killed  the  last,  and 
set  up  a  column  to  show  that  the  whole  Christian  sect 
was  extinct.  But  faith  is  prophetic  ;  and  although  they 
could  not  foresee  what  actually  happened,  that  their 
sculptured  images  should  one  day  crowd  the  Pantheon, 
and  the  temple  reared  to  a  heathen  goddess  be  dedi 
cated  to  the  mother  of  their  Christ,  they  did  foresee  that 
they  should  all  stand,  with  white  robes,  and  palms  in 
their  hands,  and  songs  on  their  lips,  before  God,  in 
another  temple,  to  go  no  more  out. 

God  is  asking  constancy  of  us.  You  do  not  need 
that  I  should  remind  you  what  ever-besetting  and  fear 
ful  tempters  are  waylaying  your  steadfastness.  If  you 
swerve  from  Christian  consistency ;  if  you  go  from 
prayers  here  to  profanity  and  passion  in  the  paltry 
annoyances  of  the  week ;  if  you  purpose,  and  will  not 
perform;  if  you  talk  of  heaven,  and  live  only  for  self; 
if  you  profess  Christianity  at  church,  only  to  dishonor  it 
by  your  daily  infidelity,  —  then  it  wants  no  judgment 
out  of  yourself  to  tell  you,  that  you  belong  not  to  the 
saints  of  Caesar's  household,  but  among  its  sinners. 

Our  Nero  is  self-love.  The  senses  are  the  Cassars 
of  all  ages.  Fashion  is  a  Rome  that  commissions  its 
legions  and  spreads  its  silent  empire  wider  than  the 
Pra3torian  eagles.  The  reigning  temper  of  the  world 
is  the  imperishable  persecutor  and  tyrant  of  the  faithful 
soul.  And  so,  in  all  our  New  England,  in  every  home 


SAINTHOOD   IN    CAESAR1  S    HOUSEHOLD.  227 

and  street,  seminary  ana  dwelling,  there  are  chances 
for  the  reappearing  of  saints  in  Ca3sar's  household. 
Wherever  a  fearless  man  deems  any  bribe  to  do  wrong, 
whether  it  come  in  cunning  insinuations  or  open  bids, 
and  whether  it  offer  him  promotion,  better  wages,  a 
larger  house,  more  luxuries  or  leisure,  or  easier  tasks, 
—  deems  it  all  an  insult  to  his  clean  heart,  and  so 
spurns  it  instantly  away,  as  a  disgrace  that  would  soil 
his  spirit  more  than  the  dirt  of  any  drudgery  would  his 
hand ;  wherever  an  incorruptible  merchant  refuses  to 
conform  to  popular  deceptions,  at  the  risk  of  losing 
trade,  or  exercises  as  unsleeping  a  vigilance  over  every 
stroke  of  his  pen,  and  every  branch  of  every  transaction, 
when  no  eye  but  God's  looks  down  on  his  desk,  as  if 
the  whole  board  of  the  public  exchange  were  watching 
him,  or  scorns  to  take  up  subterfuges  which  commercial 
customs  may  wink  at  and  excuse,  and  does  it  because 
God's  eye  is  the  guide  of  his  life ;  wherever  a  righteous 
mechanic  refuses  to  let  down  his  performance  to  the 
variable  standard  of  thoroughness  or  shabbiness  extant 
in  his  class ;  wherever  an  honest  statesman  stands  above 
his  party,  the  moment  his  party  cast  their  principles 
into  a  lottery,  and  will  not  put  on  the  robe  of  office 
so  long  as  it  hides  in  its  folds  the  hypocrite's  curse ; 
wherever  a  consistent  theologian  keeps  a  conscience  as 
well  as  a  pulpit,  and  will  not  compromise  his  exhorta 
tions  and  prayers  by  the  bigotry  of  a  sect  or  the  rever 
ence  of  a  salary ;  wherever  a  self-commanding  woman 
is  greater  than  the  extravagant  edicts  of  the  fashion- 
makers,  and  dares  to  be  a  rebel  against  wasteful  and 
ambitious  competitions  or  a  society  speaking  polite  lies ; 
wherever  young  and  joyous  persons  fear  God  too  wisely, 
and  venerate  duty  too  sacredly,  to  scoff  at  religion,  or 


228  SAINTHOOD    IN    CESAR'S   HOUSEHOLD. 

laugh  at  temperance,  or  tolerate  impure  companions, 
under  any  tempting;  wherever  a  disciple  of  Christ  is 
not  ashamed  to  own  and  praise  that  holy  Lord,  by 
whom  only  he  has  forgiveness,  though  unbelieving  asso 
ciates  taunt  and  ridicule  his  constancy  ;  —  there  you 
behold  "  saints  of  the  household  of  Cresar,"  of  Roman 
firmness  but  of  Christian  holiness,  the  true  succession 
of  immortal  confessors  to  the  truth,  the  moral  Apostoli 
cal  lineage  of  Christ's  unterrified  witnesses,  and  heirs  of 
his  kingdom. 

Most  of  our  knowledge  of  these  old  Roman  Christians 
comes  by  the  way  of  the  Catacombs,  —  that  subterra 
nean  passage,  reaching  out  many  miles,  from  Rome  to 
Ostia,  stamped,  on  all  its  walls,  with  the  sculptured  and 
pictured  symbols  of  early  Christian  ideas  and  the  fune 
real  inscriptions  of  the  men  that  lived  in  and  died  for 
them,  preserving  in  the  silent  burial  of  fourteen  hun 
dred  years  these  traces  of  martyrs  and  confessors,  but 
uncovered  at  last  by  the  enterprise  of  discovery,  and 
made  to  rehearse  the  lost  history  of  the  first  struggles 
of  our  religion  in  the  capital  of  the  world.  There  you 
may  read  what  it  was  to  be  a  saint  in  the  household, 
or  even  in  the  city,  of  the  Caesars.  You  may  see  how 
prayers  that  could  not  be  stifled  went  up  from  caverns, 
with  no  doubts  that  they  should  find  their  way  to  the 
ear  of  God  through  the  rocky  roof,  sooner  than  the 
shrieks  and  incense  from  the  shining  heathen  temples 
above.  There  you  will  see  how  Providence,  honoring 
humble  instruments,  as  his  method  is,  used  the  vulgar 
sand-diggers  that  excavated  the  Campagna,  after  they 
were  converted  to  the  new  doctrine,  to  act  as  guides  to 
their  brethren  of  the  young  Church,  providing  a  hiding- 
place  for  it  in  the  scene  of  their  former  labors.  You 


SAINTHOOD   IN   C2ESAR?S   HOUSEHOLD.  ,229 

behold  the  long  tiers,  or  alcoves,  of  the  graves  of  those 
who,  having  died  in  faith,  inherit  the  promises.  No 
symbols  of  hateful  passion,  no  tokens  of  revenge  for  the 
wrongs  they  smarted  under,  no  wails  of  heathenish 
despair,  no  signs  of  bloody  altars  ;  —  but,  instead,  the 
tokens  of  peace,  hope,  and  joy ;  pictures  of  love ; 
legends  of  reconciliation ;  a  monogram  of  the  Saviour ; 
a  lamb ;  a  branch  of  palm ;  a  cross ;  some  epitaph 
commemorating  a  "  friend  of  all  men,"  "  an  enemy 
of  none,"  "  one  meek  and  lowly,"  those  that  "  sleep 
in  Jesus,"  or  others  "borne  away  by  angels."  Every 
where  you  see  traces  and  proofs  of  that  heavenly  tem 
per,  that  pure  and  prayerful  spirit,  that  disinterested 
and  self-denying  piety,  that  influence  from  on  high, 
which  you  know  was  never  the  product  of  the  Roman 
nature,  never  caught  from  Roman  philosophers,  never 
fostered  by  the  Roman  armies,  never  ordained  by  Ro 
man  law,  never  inspired  by  Roman  mythology,  —  the 
gift  of  God  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  heritage 
of  his  Church,  the  new  creation,  the  regeneration  of  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

In  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Catacombs,  which  formed 
both  the  church  and  the  cemetery  of  the  early  Roman 
Christians,  were  thrown  open  to  the  light.  Notice  now 
the  change  that  passes  on  the  outward  position  of  these 
sacred  memorials.  The  monumental  stones,  the  cover 
ings  of  graves,  the  decaying  bones  even,  are  removed 
from  their  dark  chambers,  and  lifted  into  the  day.  They 
are  placed  in  royal  collections  of  costly  treasures ;  they 
are  sent  all  over  Europe  as  precious  gifts  to  princes ; 
they  stand  in  honored  niches  in  great  museums  of  art ; 
and  even  on  the  splendid  walls  of  the  Vatican  travellers 
find  these  plain  tablets,  with  their  rude  inscriptions 
20 


230  SAINTHOOD   IN   CAESAR'S   HOUSEHOLD. 

scratched  by  unlettered  gravers  in  the  dark,  —  with 
their  badly  spelt  epitaphs,  simple  as  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  —  they  find  these  ranged  in  showy  publicity 
along  vast  galleries,  beside  the  pompous  eulogies  and 
exquisite  sculptures  of  more  artificial  days,  —  relics  of 
a  troubled,  lowly  past,  venerated,  nay,  worshipped  now, 
by  a  prosperous  and  perverted  present.  The  Church 
that  hid  underground  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  scourged 
by  the  Caesars,  has  risen  out  of  dens  and  caves  into 
the  world's  homage,  conquered  its  enemies,  and  sits  on 
Cesar's  throne. 

Is  there  not  a  twofold  change,  —  one  within  exactly 
the  reverse  of  that  without,  —  an  increase  of  danger 
keeping  pace  with  the  increase  of  power  ?  The  change 
from  outward  poverty  and  inward  strength  to  material 
prosperity  with  spiritual  starvation,  is  no  such  progress 
as  Christians  can  pray  for.  When  one  reads  these  sim 
ple  and  joyous  words  that  were  written  in  the  Cata 
combs  by  the  saints  of  Cassar's  time,  he  feels  himself 
borne  back  into  the  fresh  morning  air  of  faith,  —  into 
the  original  purity  of  Gospel  life,  —  among  brave,  up 
right,  and  steadfast  souls,  incapable  of  being  shaken  by 
imperial,  commercial,  political,  or  social  intimidation, — 
very  near  to  the  Divine  Master  who  was  tempted  in  all 
points  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin.  Ascend  from  the 
humble  Koman  Church  of  the  second  century  into  the 
arrogant  pretensions  and  inconsistencies  of  our  own, — 
from  the  Christianity  of  the  damp  pit,  where  self-denial 
would  rather  face  crucifixion  than  take  all  the  bribes 
of  comfort,  up  into  the  Christianity  of  the  popular  and 
outside  appearance  which  satisfies  so  many  to-day. 

We  have  nothing  to  fear  from  caverns  or  palaces,  — 
from  emperors  or  popes.  Yet  there  is  something  to 


SAINTHOOD   IN   CJESAR's   HOUSEHOLD.  231 

learn  from  the  noble  faith  of -believers  that  could  lay 
down  their  life  for  Christ,  and  something  to  fear  from 
the  hollow  sins  of  hypocrites  who  waste  life  for  worldly 
welfare.  Human  nature  is  the  same,  though  the  great 
seats  of  power  are  shifted  from  the  Tiber  westward,  and 
the  currents  of  thought  and  habit  flow  in  altered  chan 
nels.  "We  have  our  probation  daily,  amidst  the  con 
flicts,  interests,  exposures,  enterprises,  of  a  New  Eng 
land  community,  —  not  the  wickedest  on  the  planet, 
but  wicked  enough  to  need  all  our  vigilance,  purity, 
example,  and  prayers ;  and  enough  like  Cassar's  house 
hold  to  make  us  aspire  to  be  saints,  righteous  souls, 
within  it.  But  whatever  we  do,  or  fail  to  do,  outside 
ourselves,  be  it  our  first  care  to  save  our  own  hearts 
from  destruction.  Within  us  lies  an  empire  to  be  lost 
or  redeemed.  What  personal  relation  each  soul  has 
with  God,  —  that  is  a  question  not  to  stand  unsettled 
any  longer.  For  over  every  passing  moment  impends 
the  whole  arch  of  eternity.  The  God  who  calls  us  to 
regeneration,  calls  us  to  judgment.  Cassar  may  wear 
the  crown,  and  saints  bear  the  cross,  on  earth ;  but  into 
the  household  of  heaven  can  enter  nothing  that  is 
denied,  or  maketh  a  lie,  and  "  crowns  of  life  "  are  only 
for  the  "  faithful  unto  death." 


SEEMON    XIII. 

DIVINE  REWABDS. 

THEN  CAME  TO  HIM  THE  MOTHER  OF  ZEBEDEE'S  CHILDREN 
WITH  HER  SONS,  WORSHIPPING  HIM,  AND  DESIRING  HIM, 
GRANT  THAT  THESE  MY  TWO  SONS  MAY  SIT,  THE  ONE  ON 
THY  RIGHT  HAND,  AND  THE  OTHPIR  ON  THE  LEFT,  IN  THY 
KINGDOM.  BUT  JESUS  ANSWERED  AND  SAID,  YE  KNOW  NOT 
WHAT  YE  ASK.  ARE  YE  ABLE  TO  DRINK  OF  THE  CUP  THAT 
I  SHALL  DRINK  OF,  AND  TO  BE  BAPTIZED  WITH  THE  BAP 
TISM  THAT  I  AM  BAPTIZED  WITH?  THEY  SAY  UNTO  HIM, 
WE  ARE  ABLE.  AND  HE  SAITH  UNTO  THEM,  YE  SHALL  DRINK, 
INDEED,  OF  MY  CUP,  AND  BE  BAPTIZED  WITH  THE  BAPTISM 
THAT  I  AM  BAPTIZED  WITH;  BUT  TO  SIT  ON  MY  RIGHT 
HAND  AND  ON  MY  LEFT  IS  NOT  MINE  TO  GIVE.  —  Matthew 
xx.  20  -  23. 

WITH  a  dim  perception  of  his  objects,  and  a  feeble 
feeling  of  his  divinity,  but  with  sincerity,  these  two  dis 
ciples  had  attached  themselves  to  Christ's  company  and 
his  fortunes.  Something  in  that  wonderful  person  and 
ministry — they  hardly  yet  know  what  it  is — has 
drawn  them  honestly  to  him,  and  the  attachment  grows 
with  a  growing  intimacy  every  day.  But  presently 
there  creeps  in  a  thought  for  their  private  position, 
which  is  the  first  form  of  selfishness  ;  and  then  a  thought 
for  their  national  ambition  and  revenge,  —  damaging 
the  whole-heartedness  and  beauty  of  their  devotion. 


DIVINE  REWARDS.  233 

They  are  loyal  to  the  great  and  good  Master  they  have 
found ;  but  they  are  not  yet  Christlike  enough  to  forget 
that  his  imperial  ascendency  will  probably  bring  with  it 
their  own  promotion.  They  really  mean  to  be  true  to 
his  interests ;  but  they  are  not  so  far  spiritualized  as 
not  to  be  thinking  that  they  can  at  the  same  time  serve 
his  interests  and  advance  their  own.  They  are  fol 
lowing,  but  following  half  unconsciously  for  a  personal 
reward. 

Christ's  answer  is  not  for  these  seekers  of  office  only, 
nor  for  place-hunters  in  our  day  only,  but  for  all  men 
who  would  think  of  being  Christians  for  a  compensation, 
in  whatever  form  we  give  that  compensation  shape,  — 
in  a  secular  civilization,  in  public  prosperity,  in  agree 
able  society,  in  our  neighbor's  confidence,  votes,  trade, 
esteem,  or  in  personal  happiness.  He  says,  You  may 
drink  of  my  cup,  which  will  often  be  bitter ;  you  may 
be  baptized  with  my  baptism,  which  may  be  one  of  fire 
and  blood:  but  you  are  not  to  think  of  honors  and 
rewards :  those  are  all  of  so  different  a  sort  and  are  to 
come  in  ways  so  different  from  those  you  dream  of  now, 
that  if  I  were  to  tell  you  what  they  are  you  would 
only  marvel  and  doubt.  Wait !  think  nothing  about 
sitting  on  my  right  and  my  left,  in  my  new  kingdom, 
which  is  even  far  newer  and  stranger  than  you  imagine. 
Follow  on  in  my  path.  Do  all  the  daily  work  of  a 
disciple.  Take  up  my  cross  and  learn  what  its  great 
redemption  means.  "Warm  and  enlarge  your  hearts 
with  my  Holy  Spirit.  Be  concerned  about  your  service 
and  sacrifice,  not  about  the  recompense. 

This  introduces  the  doctrine  of  Divine  Rewards.  For 
what  reason  is  Christ  to  be  sought  ?  Out  of  what  mo 
tive  is  his  will  to  be  done  ?  Is  it  because  he  has  the 

20--* 


234  DIVINE  REWARDS. 

power  to  make  us  miserable,  and  the  power  to  make  us 
happy  ?  and  so  is  it  for  the  hope  of  getting  payment  or 
for  the  fear  of  getting  punished,  —  which  are  only  oppo 
site  sides  of  one  and  the  same  principle,  —  or  is  it  from 
another  reason  altogether:  viz.  out  of  the  affection,  the 
reverence,  the  trust,  and  the  gratitude,  due  to  his  di 
vinity  and  awakened  in  us  by  his  goodness  ?  As  the 
answer  to  these  questions  affects  the  very  motive  out  of 
which  men  begin  and  pursue  a  religious  life,  or  refuse 
to  do  SO}  the  subject  is  of  course  abundantly  practical. 
Is  not  one  of  the  main  reasons  why  Christian  faith  exer 
cises  such  an  imperfect  power  among  men,  that  they 
misapprehend  the  sort  of  advantage  they  may  expect  to 
get  from  it  ? 

There  appear  to  be  three  principal  desires  which 
direct  attention  to  religious  truth.  The  first  of  these, 
and  the  lowest  in  the  order  of  moral  purity,  is  a  want 
of  personal  comfort.  Those  actuated  by  this  motive 
have  heard  that  religion  makes  life  happier,  —  eases  its 
burdens,  lightens  its  labors,  heals  its  pain,  and,  gen 
erally,  gratifies  the  sensibilities.  That  is,  on  the  whole, 
it  will  be  a  pleasanter  thing  to  live  with  some  religious 
emotion  and  protection  than  without.  The  idea  that 
this  pleasure  will  be  of  a  higher  character  than  sensual 
or  worldly  pleasure  is  not  entirely  forgotten ;  but  it  is 
secondary.  Comfort  first,  nobleness  afterwards.  And 
so  this  class,  deciding  that  they  will  get  more  happiness 
from  religion  than  by  any  other  process,  go  in  search  of 
a  religion. 

The  second  want  is  that  of  moral  guidance,  or  a  rule 
to  act  by,  and  is  of  a  much  higher  grade  than  the  first. 
Persons  under  this  motive,  having  got  clear  of  a  su 
preme  concern  for  comfort,  look  out  on  life  as  a  school 


DIVINE  REWARDS.  235 

for  training  in  right  exercises,  and  for  the  practice 
of  the  virtues.  They  are  conscious  of  being  under 
the  weight  of  a  tremendous  law,  or  command,  which 
they  must  obey.  Their  interpretation  of  Christianity 
is  summed  up  in  the  maxim  to  keep  the  command 
ment.  But  the  world  is  a  perplexed  scene,  they  find. 
One  way  of  doing  right  seems  to  conflict  with  another 
way.  The  paths  cross  and  recross  each  other.  It  is  a 
tangled  labyrinth.  A  thousand  questions  of  casuistry 
come  up.  The  problems  are  hard  to  solve.  Too  much 
is  thrown  on  a  short-sighted  intellect  and  an  infirm 
heart.  Besides,  duty  as  duty,  by  compulsion,  is  not 
inspiring,  but  drudgery.  God's  law,  even  if  known, 
can  never  be  perfectly  kept,  but  is  broken  somewhere 
by  fallen  man  continually.  From  sheer  inability  to  do 
the  right  thing,  at  the  right  time,  in  the  right  way, 
such  persons  go  to  religion  to  help  out  their  deficien 
cies  ;  but  they  go  to  it  rather  reluctantly,  as  to  a  rule, 
—  not  as  an  inspiration,  nor  for  love  of  it. 

The  third  want  is  of  a  different  character.  It  has 
no  regard  to  selfish  satisfaction  whatever,  whether  by 
agreeable  emotions,  or  the  complacencies  of  good  per 
formance,  or  exemption  from  the  fear  of  penalty  for  bad 
performance.  It  is,  so  to  speak,  a  want  of  giving  and 
loving,  —  of  giving  to  the  Lord  what  the  soul  feels 
belongs  to  him,  —  affection  and  gratitude :  a  want  of 
loving,  and  of  rendering  all  the  hearty  service  that  love 
inspires.  It  is  a  spiritual  aspiration.  It  would  pour  out 
freely  and  forever  the  spontaneous  tribute  of  a  glad  and 
self-forgetful  spirit.  It  does  not  stop  to  inquire  so  much 
about  the  pleasure  to  be  got  out  of  piety,  nor  about  the 
commands  that  apply  to  conduct.  It  springs  straight 
up  by  an  impulse  whose  proper  name  is  faith,  and  puts 


236  DIVINE  REWARDS. 

the  whole  heart  into  the  keeping  of  the  Holy  One,  to 
let  him  have  it,  and  mould  it  and  fashion  it  as  he  will. 
Meditating  on  the  divine  excellence  and  mercy  and 
sacrifice,  it  feels  that  he  is  the  irresistible  object  of  a 
devotion  imcalculating  and  unlimited,  which  it  would 
be  impossible  to  keep  back.  It  ceases  to  calculate  and 
hardly  even  prays  to  be  made  happy.  It  is  the  desire 
of  a  harmonious  and  affectionate  union  with  God  in  the 
reconciling  and  forgiving  Spirit  of  the  Saviour. 

Here  are  three  motives  sending  men  to  religion. 
After  their  simple  statement,  no  man  needs  to  be  in 
formed  which  is  the  loftiest  and  best.  Not  that  each 
of  them  is  necessarily  free  from  any  intermixture 
with  the  others.  They  may  be  blended  in  different  de 
grees.  But  one  of  them  is  likely,  in  every  case,  to 
predominate  strongly  over  the  other  two  ;  and  so  each 
of  them  is  represented  among  us  by  a  distinct  class  of 
persons,  with  specimens  that  all  of  us  have  seen, — the 
religionists  of  self-gratification,  the  religionists  of  moral 
obedience,  and  the  religionists  of  spiritual  aspiration 
and  affection,  or  of  faith. 

Next,  be  reminded  that  these  three  different  wants 
spring  up  from  different  places,  or  faculties,  in  our 
nature. 

The  first  comes  from  a  mixture  of  natural  instinct 
and  shrewdness,  which  we  commonly  call  by  the  sus 
picious  name  of  self-interest.  "When  that  feeling  turns 
to  religion,  it  acts  in  different  constitutions  in  various 
ways,  from  the  hypocrite  who  puts  on  the  profession  of 
Christianity  and  goes  through  its  ceremonies  merely  as 
a  means  of  advancement  or  social  currency  in  a  Chris 
tian  community,  up  to  the  sincere  and  aching  sufferer, 
who  applies  to  the  New  Testament,  precisely  as  he 


DIVINE   REWARDS.  237 

would  to  a  medical  adviser,  to  bo  rid  of  pain.  Between 
these  arc  many  degrees  of  character :  the  dishonest 
formalist,  deserving  nothing  but  disgust,  —  the  bereaved 
mourner,  or  the  victim  of  misfortune,  or  treachery,  or 
disease,  who  carries  an  agonized  and  dissatisfied  heart 
to  the  Bible  for  a  cure,  and  is  to  be  met  in  a  spirit  of 
tender  compassion.  But  none  the  less  is  it  a  serious 
question  for  every  one  of  us,  how  far  self-interest,  in 
any  of  its  shapes,  is  at  the  bottom  of  our  religious  pre 
tensions  ;  because  just  so  far  as  it  is,  these  pretensions 
are  hollow,  —  we  are  on  the  wrong  road,  and  are 
estranged  from  the  large  and  beautiful  soul  of  our 
Lord,  whose  greatest  work  is  sacrifice,  and  whose  name 
is  Love. 

The  second  want  comes  from  the  region  of  the  con 
science.  Conscience  exacts  obedience.  It  refers  to 
a  law.  It  speaks  of  the  irreconcilable  opposition  be 
tween  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong.  It  is  the  seat 
of  morality,  and  governs  all  our  moral  action.  It  is 
the  noble  faculty  that  rules  by  divine  right  over  the 
appetites,  and  even  the  understanding.  All  honor  to 
obedience  simply  as  obedience  ;  to  duty  as  duty ;  to 
men  and  women  who  try  to  find  out  God's  command 
and  keep  it !  They  are  not  far  from  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  and  keeping  on  shall  surely  come  there. 
Among  the  nobilities  and  glories  of  religious  charac 
ter,  this  is  next  to  the  very  highest,  and  second  only  to 
the  life  of  love.  No  man  can  be  a  complete  or  Chris 
tian  man  who  slights  conscience.  It  is  what  regulates 
most  of  our  human  intercourse  and  social  relationships. 
It  girds  up  business  and  amusements,  commerce  and 
personal  habits,  with  mighty  restraints,  checking  all 
manner  of  excess,  forbidding  fraud,  and  instigating 


288  DIVINE  REWARDS. 

many  righteous  deeds.  Its  demands  are  just,  and  it 
has  a  right  to  be  satisfied.  Nor  can  those  be  mistaken 
who  go  to  the  Saviour  to  satisfy  it.  For  it  can  be  thor 
oughly  enlightened,  and  kept  quick-sighted,  nowhere 
but  in  him.  Yet  this  need  not  make  us  confound  the 
religion  of  conscience,  which  is  somewhat  legal  ancl 
rigid  alone,  with  the  religion  of  spiritual  aspiration 
and  affection,  —  of  Christ's  faith. 

The  want  of  this  third  kind  originates,  not  in  the  un 
derstanding,  nor  the  passions,  nor  the  conscience,  but 
in  the  soul  and  the  soul's  peculiar  activity,  —  especially, 
as  was  said,  in  its  love,  its  trust,  and  its  gratitude. 
These  do  not  so  much  send  us  out  in  search  of  a  relig 
ion  ;  for  love,  trust,  gratitude,  directed  to  the  soul's 
Saviour,  constitute  the  Christian  religion.  They  are 
the  thing  itself,  in  its  divinest  purity  and  dignity.  Fil 
ial  love,  trust,  gratitude,  rising  to  the  Father,  are 
greater  than  anything  a  servant  in  the  bondage  of  the 
law  can  know,  and  more  glorious  than  the  fairest  form 
of  self-interest.  They  are  the  peculiar  brightness  and 
power  of  the  Christian  style  of  religion.  They  exalt 
the  faith  of  Jesus  over  every  other  principle.  They 
bind  the  heart  in  generous  and  immortal  fellowship 
with  him  who  is  the  Light  and  Life. 

It  becomes  evident  enough  how  out  of  these  three 
fountains  flow  three  sorts  of  religious  life,  as  distinct 
from  one  another  as  their  sources  are.  One  we  may 
call  the  religion  of  calculation,  the  second  the  religion 
of  duty,  the  third  the  religion  of  holy  love.  This  last  is 
pre-eminently  the  religion  of  Christ.  Tt  is  what  we  find 
in  the  New  Testament.  It  is  our  gospel.  Here  the 
willing  and  affectionate  heart,  touched  by  grace,  and 
springing  freely  up  to  the  Father,  adores  no  longer  a 


DIVINE   REWARDS.  239 

judge,  but  a  friend ;  not  a  lawgiver  merely,  but  a 
redeemer.  It  takes  up  all  the  law,  but  looks  at  it  in 
the  light  of  love.  It  keeps  the  commandments,  but 
from  another  motive,  —  not  as  commandments,  but  as 
the  will  of  Him  whom  it  delights  to  honor,  and  in  whose 
bosom  it  longs  forever  to  dwell. 

We  have  now  prepared  ground  from  which  we  can 
look  more  clearly  at  the  rewards  God  promises  to  those 
that  diligently  seek  him.  They  depend,  in  each  case, 
on  the  motive  and  spirit  in  which  we  serve  him. 

First  of  all,  then,  religion  will  never  yield  its  true 
rewards  to  those  that  seek  it  for  the  sake  of  its  rewards. 
It  deals  very  frankly  with  us,  having  no  concern  to 
make  proselytes  under  false  pretences.  It  is  willing  we 
should  understand  that  those  who  court  it  for  anything 
else  than  its  Giver's  sake  will  meet  perpetual  disap 
pointment.  "Whatever  else  they  may  get,  it  will  not 
be  Christian  peace.  Men  may  carry  their  selfishness 
into  their  religion,  or  rather  into  certain  religious  for 
malities  and  observances,  as  into  everything  else.  But 
they  will  bring  away  only  what  they  take  in.  If  you 
espouse  the  Christian  cause  only  to  better  your  social 
position,  or  your  business  prospects,  you  will  find  you 
have  grasped  a  phantom.  You  only  provide  an  accumu 
lated  fund  of  shame,  against  the  hour  when  the  secrets 
of  all  hearts  shall  be  laid  open.  Under  the  pretence  of 
seeking  God,  you  have  only  put  on  a  mask,  and  gone  on 
seeking  and  serving  yourself.  God  has  never  engaged 
to  be  a  "  rewarder  "  of  such  ;  for  it  is  not  Him  that  they 
seek. 

But  suppose  you  rise  a  step  above  this  covetousness 
for  outward  gain,  and  enter  on  what  is  called  a  relig 
ious  life  for  a  better  kind  of  comfort,  —  as,  for  example, 


240  DIVINE  REWARDS. 

to  obtain  relief  for  sorrow,  or  the  satisfaction  of  self- 
approval.  No  man  can  say  that  in  such  cases  God  may 
not  lead  the  soul  on,  through  this  half-selfish  state,  into 
serving  him  for  some  more  disinterested  affection.  His 
compassion  is  boundless ;  the  very  contact  of  the  mind 
with  him  in  any  way  is  hallowing  ;  and  he  is  willing  to 
save  to  the  uttermost  the  weary  and  stricken  hearts  that 
lift  their  eyes  from  earth  to  heaven.  But  just  so  long 
and  just  to  the  same  extent  as  their  motive  is  personal 
comfort,  they  will  fail  of  any  glorious  reward.  I  have 
known  persons  to  be  so  haunted  and  scourged  by  some 
great  grief  or  suffering,  that  they  were  ready  to  try  any 
new  prescription,  to  get  rid  of  the  aching.  They  begin 
at  the  wrong  point,  with  a  wrong  idea,  and  cannot  suc 
ceed.  What  they  need  first  of  all  is  a  renunciation  of 
the  worldly  and  selfish  heart  they  are  still  carrying  in 
their  bosoms,  and  because  it  is  offensive  to  the  pure 
God  ;  what  they  need  is  repentance  and  a  renewed  life 
inwardly  ;  what  they  need  is  the  change  that  will  put 
them  at  once  into  thorough  reconciliation  by  faith  with 
the  spirit  of  Christ,  fixing  their  chief  interest  to  a  new 
centre.  Gaining  this,  regardless  of  comfort,  and  willing 
to  suffer  on,  even,  if  that  should  be  the  Divine  purpose, 
so  entire  is  their  subjection  of  unworthy  self  to  the 
blessed  Hand, —  saying,  with  the  great-hearted  patri 
arch,  "  Though  he  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  him,"  — 
comfort  will  come  fast  enough  of  itself;  and  precisely 
because  they  did  not  ask  noj  think  of  rewards,  —  know 
ing,  in  fact,  that,  sinners  as  they  were,  they  deserved 
none,  and  if  they  had  done  their  very  best  had  done 
only  what  was  their  duty  to  do,  —  the  most  splendid  of 
all  rewards  will  suddenly  appear. 

There  is  a  deeper  meaning  than  we  sometimes  seize 


DIVINE   REWARDS.  241 

in  that  saying,  that  God  will  reward  every  man  "  accord 
ing  to  his  works,"  —  not  merely  in  proportion  to  his 
works,  and  in  some  way  or  other,  but  in  one  way,  and 
that  way  according  to  his  works,  in  the  line  of  his 
works,  in  the  kind  of  them,  —  love  for  love,  purity 
for  purity,  faith  for  faith, — heaven,  which  is  perfect 
holiness,  for  holiness.  Precisely  in  that  temper  Paul 
said,  "  What  is  my  reward,  then,  for  preaching  the  gos 
pel  ?  Yerily,  that  when  I  preach  the  gospel,  I  may 
make  the  gospel  of  Christ  without  charge."  So  Christ 
puts  the  disinterested  spirit  at  the  very  centre  and  core 
of  the  whole  message :  Drink  of  my  cup,  be  baptized 
with  my  baptism,  —  no  matter  where  you  sit,  on  thrones 
or  footstools  !  Do  good  and  lend,  hoping  for  nothing 
again,  and  your  reward  shall  be  great ;  for  ye  shall  be 
the  children  of  the  Highest. 

In  this  honorable  quality,  man's  Christian  service  is 
not  disconnected  from  his  best  acts  in  other  lines  of  life. 
The  higher  sentiments  answer  with  Antipater  of  Mac- 
edon,  who,  being  presented  with  a  work  on  happi 
ness,  replied  that  he  had  no  time  to  study  happiness. 
Those  memorable  and  inspired  deeds  that  waken  the 
world's  delight,  and  live  on  its  tongue,  are  never  done 
for  a  price.  All  heroic  achievements,  the  sublime  sacri 
fices  of  man  for  man,  of  ease  for  right,  of  life  for  love,  of 
self  for  country,  stand  clear  of  calculation  for  reward. 
The  moment  history  has  to  say  of  a  man,"  He  did  it  for 
pay,  and  took  his  wages,  —  he  played  the  hero  by  bar 
gain,"  that  moment  she  strikes  him  from  her  catalogue 
of  heroes,  and  kindles  her  enthusiasm  at  other  foun 
tains.  The  friendship  that  gives  blood  and  breath  for 
a  friend,  the  martyrdom  that  is  borne  cheerfully  for 
faith,  the  patriotism  that  faces  death  or  crucifixions  of 
21 


242  DIVINE   REWARDS. 

feeling  worse  than  death,  —  these  and  all  of  the  same 
high  race  of  magnanimities  spring  from  uncalculating 
affections.  So  our  instincts  demand,  and  so  the  facts 
testify.  In  these  august  enterprises  of  the  soul,  all 
thought  of  recompense  and  even  of  obligation,  is  gone. 
Moral  revolutions  are  not  brought  to  market.  Op 
pressed  peoples  are  not  set  free  for  a  consideration. 
Terrible  wrongs  are  not  righted  with  an  eye  to  the 
main  chance.  A  state  is  never  made  illustrious  by  its 
office-seekers.  A  church  will  never  "  arise  and  shine, 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  being  risen  upon  it,"  through  the 
agency  of  those  who  are  ambitious  to  enjoy  its  digni 
ties  and  administer  its  affairs,  —  whether  Hildebrands 
and  Gregorys,  or  village  popes  and  parish  demagogues. 
And  in  the  quiet  joys  of  every-day  life,  and  the  graces 
of  household  devotion,  the  delicious  charm  and  the 
beauty  never  lie  in  the  computed  service,  but  in  the 
willing  offering  for  love's  dear  sake  alone. 

If  these  are  the  nobilities  of  man  elsewhere,  we  need 
not  hesitate  to  recognize  them  as  legitimate  in  our 
Christianity.  Indeed,  it  is  Christianity  that  interprets 
and  sanctions  them.  When  we  go  down  into  its  deeps, 
through  the  words  of  Jesus,  or  through  the  lives  and 
confessions  of  its  strongest  believers,  or  through  a 
profound  experience,  we  come  to  the  same  discovery. 
Man  is  meant  to  live  his  best  life,  not  because  he 
must,  not  because  he  shall  smart  and  ache  if  he  does 
not,  nor  yet  because  he  shall  be  made  happy,  —  he, 
in  his  little  selfish  paradise  of  personal  comfort,  if 
he  does.  Christ's  gospel  holds  another  language,  offers 
a  more  inspiring  doctrine,  reads  man's  deeper  soul 
by  a  heavenlier  lamp.  Its  central  idea  is  self-sacri 
fice.  Its  everlasting  symbol  is  a  cross.  Its  universal 


DIVINE   REWARDS.  243 

sentiment  is  love.  All  its  apparatus  of  punishments 
and  rewards,  threats  and  promises,  —  which  are  cer 
tainly  very  real  and  very  frequent,  —  is  to  educate  us 
up  to  that  mark,  at  last.  If  we  are  far  below  it,  the 
law  as  law  must  come  in  to  train  us  up  to  it.  Com 
mand,  obligation,  duty,  must  rule  and  discipline  us  in 
that  elementary  stage.  The  law  is  our  schoolmaster  to 
lead  us  on  to  Christ,  just  as  in  earthly  schools  the 
scholar  is  taught,  by  coercion,  to  live  and  learn  from 
higher  motives.  In  the  framework  of  a  compulsory  dis 
cipline,  he  grows  up  to  seek  knowledge  for  its  own  sake 
and  to  study  from  love  of  it,  which  is  the  highest  result 
of  any  education.  Duties,  Christ  teaches,  must  be 
done  as  duties,  work  as  work,  till  in  the  regenerate 
spirit  of  his  own  self-forgetful  devotion  we  do  them 
spontaneously,  or  do  them  even  as  he  died  for  us,  for 
love. 

Here,  too,  we  shall  find  the  peculiar  and  distinctive 
ministry  which  the  Christian  Revelation  brings.  Pre 
cisely  what  the  world  wanted  was  a  being  near,  visible, 
palpable,  —  good  enough,  gracious  and  divine  enough, 
to  inspire  an  affection  or  a  faith  of  such  mighty  energy 
as  to  breathe  in  this  new  motive,  and  start  the  moral 
life  of  men  from  a  new  point.  And  this  came  in  Christ, 
our  living,  suffering  Lord.  The  unseen  Jehovah  had 
done  much  for  his  people ;  but  in  the  distant  deific 
Providence  man  had  not  seen  yet  that  last  and  crowning 
proof  of  mercy,  a  willingness  to  suffer  for  the  beloved's 
sake.  In  Christ,  in  all  his  humiliation,  and  most  of  all 
at  Gethsemane  and  Calvary,  that  is  embodied.  And 
whosoever  has  in  him  the  grateful  and  believing  sense 
of  it,  is  a  new  creature.  He  lives  again.  He  lives  for 
ever.  It  is  the  regeneration.  It  is  the  Life  Eternal. 


244  DIVINE  REWARDS. 

No  more  to  sit  on  the  right  hand  or  the  left  of  kingly 
power  and  splendor ;  no  more  for  outward  reward,  no 
more  for  fear,  no  more  as  a  servant  obeying  the  rigor 
ous  and  literal  commandment ;  but  as  the  loving  child, 
with  filial  discipleship,  he  lives  for  God.  All  the 
weighty  and  striking  words  of  the  New  Testament  and 
its  new  and  divine  philosophy  are  fulfilled  in  him.  He 
walks  with  Christ,  rooted  and  built  up  in  him.  He  has 
put  on  the  Lord  Jesus.  Christ  is  verily  formed  within 
him,  a  new  creation,  a  spiritual,  personal  life, — which 
is  the  life  of  self-forgetful,  of  more  than  obedient,  of 
trusting  love. 

Nor  can  it  be  said,  to  derogate  from  the  virtuous 
character  of  this  unsordid  fidelity,  that  it  is  merely  im 
pulsive,  and  partakes  of  the  fitfulness  and  uncertainty 
of  impulse.  To  be  spontaneous,  and  to  be  impulsive, 
are  not  the  same  thing.  The  acts  of  the  maturest, 
most  rational,  most  thoroughly  disciplined  saint  may 
be  just  as  spontaneous  and  just  as  natural  as  the  sim 
plest  instincts  of  the  child.  It  only  requires  that  the 
inward  life  shall  be  so  full,  so  harmonized,  and  so  holy, 
that  its  acts  shall  proceed,  as  it  were,  unconsciously 
from  it,  by  a  choice  so  constant  and  ready  that  the 
mind  does  not  seem  even  to  choose.  In  fact,  this  is 
probably  the  highest  result  of  religious  discipline. 
Friction  ceases.  Effort  is  lost  in  free  allegiance.  Only 
it  is  now  not  instinct  only,  as  in  infancy,  but  the  in 
stinct  of  the  convicted  soul  and  principled  conscience, 
of  the  man  "  born  again  of  the  Spirit "  into  the  king 
dom  of  Christ.  It  differs  from  the  spontaneity  of  child 
hood,  just  as  the  purity  of  the  man  from  the  purity  of 
the  child.  It  has  been  tried  by  temptation,  and  had 
its  fight  with  the  world.  There  has  been  the  struggle 


DIVINE  REWARDS.  245 

of  passion  and  the  warfare  with  evil.  Between  this 
and  that  lie  all  the  conflict  and  trial  and  agony  and 
experience  of  the  converted  heart  and  the  developed 
life.  They  differ  as  Peter  the  consistent  apostle,  fervent 
and  self-renouncing,  from  Peter  the  natural  man,  hot 
and  self-asserting.  Command  has  been  obeyed.  Law 
has  done  its  work.  But  now  constraint  is  swallowed  up 
in  the  Christlike  eagerness  of  doing  good  because  it  is 
good,  and  all  things  for  the  Father's  glory. 

The  same  principle  must  be  applied  to  the  desire  of 
going  to  heaven  as  a  motive  to  religious  endeavor.  Just 
so  far  forth  as  I  desire  to  go  to  heaven  for  the  sake  of 
any  personal  pleasures  to  be  enjoyed  there,  because  it  is 
a  place  where  there  is  more  ease,  or  an  endless  round  of 
festivities  and  happy  excitements,  so  far  I  degrade  the 
true  conception  of  heaven  and  prepare  a  certain  disap 
pointment  for  myself.  But  if  we  hope  for  the  next  life 
as  a  scene  of  larger  spiritual  freedom,  nobler  opportuni 
ties,  and  an  escape  from  all  sin  and  meanness,  we  are 
right  to  long  for  our  immortality.  The '  kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  a  state  of  spiritual  purity,  not  meat  and 
drink.  This  is  the  sense  in  which  Christ  always  holds 
out  to  us  the  promise  of  a  hereafter.  "  Set  your  affec 
tions  on  things  above,"  he  says,  i.  e.  noble,  exalted, 
disinterested,  divine  things,  —  eternal  truth,  a  Christ- 
like  life,  God's  love,  angelic  holiness,  —  not  easy,  com 
fortable,  pleasant,  good-tasting  things.  When  he  says, 
"  Your  reward  shall  be  great  in  heaven,"  he  is  speak 
ing  of  disinterested  conduct,  and  he  means  that  its 
whole  consciousness  and  feeling  shall  be  lofty  and 
serene  as  heaven,  —  and  he  assures  the  spiritually 
minded  who  have  faith  in  him  that  they  shall  have  eter 
nal  life.  But  he  nowhere  offers  us  heaven  as  a  price  for 
21* 


246  DIVINE  REWARDS. 

good  behavior,  as  foolish  parents,  or  rather  wicked 
parents,  hire  their  children  to  obey  with  sweetmeats  and 
toys.  It  is  in  no  such  sense  as  this  that  he  engages  to 
be  a  rewarder  of  them  that  seek  him.  The  very  pas 
sage  just  quoted  discredits  such  a  thought ;  for  it  says, 
"  If  ye  love  them  that  love  you,  what  reward  have  ye?" 
There  must  be  spontaneous  service.  The  heart  must 
go  into  it,  uncalculating  and  ungrudging.  You  must 
love  your  enemies,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you, 
and  bless  them  that  curse  you,  and  lend  hoping  for 
nothing  again.  Then  you  will  be  children  of  the  High 
est  ;  and,  precisely  because  you  expected  no  reward  at 
all,  verily  your  reward  shall  be  great. 

There  is  a  striking  legend  of  saintly  old  Bishop  Ivo, 
who  walked  with  God,  and  saw  through  the  self-seeking 
religionists  of  his  time,  and  longed  for  larger  faith. 
He  describes  himself  as  meeting,  one  day,  a  figure  in 
the  form  of  woman,  of  a  sad,  earnest  aspect,  like  some 
prophetess  of  God,  who  carried  a  vessel  of  fire  in  one 
hand,  and  of  water  in  the  other.  He  asked  her  what 
these  things  were  for.  She  answered,  The  fire  is  to 
burn  up  Paradise,  and  the  water  is  to  quench  Hell,  — 
that  men  may  henceforth  serve  their  Maker,  not  from 
the  selfish  hope  of  the  one,  nor  for  the  selfish  fear  of 
the  other,  but  for  love  of  himself  alone.  God  does 
not  consume  Paradise,  nor  quench  Hell.  He  keeps 
the  fountains  of  sweet  and  living  waters  leaping  and 
flowing  in  the  one ;  he  keeps  the  awful  fires  of  the 
other  burning.  But  surely  all  this  promise  and  penalty 
do  not  mean  that  we  are  to  stop  in  their  discipline, 
and  calculate  the  price  of  our  obedience.  0  no !  Not 
while  the  glorious  voice  of  the  Apostle  rings  out  over 
the  centuries,  "  The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  me :  I 


DIVINE   REWARDS.  247 

count  all  things  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowl 
edge  of  him."  Not  while  the  Saviour  says  to  the  as 
piring  heart  of  the  world,  "  Be  ye  perfect,  even  as  your 
Father  in  heaven  is  perfect,"  "  hoping  for  nothing 
again." 

So  we  come  up  at  last  to  those  acts  of  the  true 
religion  —  our  Christian  religion  —  which  are  done  in 
the  faith  of  the  heart ;  and  here  we  reach  the  highest 
view  of  the  Divine  rewards,  simply  because  God  has 
made  these  to  be  their  own  reward.  The  reward  is  in 
doing  them ;  in  the  inevitable  feeling  that  goes  along 
with  them,  far  enough  from  being  set  about  as  the  end, 
but  interwoven  with  them  by  the  gracious  bounty  that 
ever  surprises  faithful  souls.  With  all  these  true  acts 
and  emotions  of  the  really  spiritually-minded  man,  it 
is  precisely  as  it  is  with  any  of  those  acts  of  common 
life  that  the  heart  goes  most  into.  You  cannot  speak 
of  any  rewards  for  the  love  that  is  the  bond  of  a  true 
marriage,  without  insulting  those  to  whom  you  speak. 
You  cannot  connect  the  notion  of  compensation,  pay, 
with  the  affection  that  twines  a  child's  arms  about  the 
mother's  neck,  or  that  keeps  her  waiting,  in  vigils  that 
outwatch  the  patient  stars,  over  the  child's  pain  or  sin, 
without  profaning  that  affection.  You  cannot  asso 
ciate  the  prospect  of  a  reward  with  the  heroic  humanity 
which  keeps  the  friendly  vessels  hanging  close,  many 
days  and  nights,  in  the  frightful  companionship  of  a 
common  peril,  to  take  off  the  passengers  of  the  imper 
illed  and  sinking  ship  ;  nor  with  any  generous  and  brave 
rescue  or  sacrifice.  Now,  to  any  spiritual  estimate,  the 
services  of  daily  piety  are  as  full  of  the  charm  and  fas 
cination  and  glory  of  self-forgetting  devotion  as  any  of 
these.  Christ  is  nearer  than  wife  or  husband.  The 


248  DIVINE   REWARDS. 

Father  in  heaven  is  more  real,  and  infinitely  holier  and 
tenderer,  than  the  human  mother.  All  fellow-souls  in 
moral  misery  or  sin  need  help  more  urgently  than  the 
shipwrecked  company.  And  so,  if  our  piety  is  real, 
like  Christ's  piety,  it  must  be  just  as  self-oblivious,  as 
hearty,  as  spontaneous  and  free,  as  that.  And  then  it 
will  have  a  more  unspeakable,  glorious,  infinite  reward. 
These,  then,  are  the  Divine  Rewards.  They  are 
rewards  in  kind.  They  are  large  just  according  to  the 
spirituality  of  our  lives,  the  zeal  of  our  worship,  the 
strength  of  our  faith.  They  are  interior,  not  visible. 
They  are  incidental,  not  sought.  They  are  of  nobleness, 
rather  than  of  happiness.  Sometimes  "  the  Rewarder 
of  them  that  diligently  seek  him  "  will  reward  the  true 
Christian  soul  by  giving  him  a  strengthening  and  en 
couraging  consciousness  of  harmony  with  the  divine 
will ;  sometimes  by  taking  him  out  from  under  the  power 
of  temptation,  or  a  straitened  self-accusation,  and  setting 
his  feet  in  a  large  place ;  sometimes  by  redoubling 
his  spiritual  energy  and  quickening  his  Christian  ac 
tivity,  breathing  a  prompter  zeal  into  all  the  secret 
forces  of  his  being,  through  the  unseen  agencies  of  the 
Holy  Spirit ;  sometimes  by  giving  him  a  blessed  sense 
of  renunciation,  of  having  given  up  all  to  Him  to  whom 
all  of  right  belongs,  together  with  an  exalted  sense  of 
liberty  from  all  limitations  of  appetite  and  ambition ; 
sometimes  by  affording  us  greater  satisfaction  in  our 
appointed  struggles  and  our  every-day  drudgery,  and 
sometimes,  too,  by  granting  us — provided  we  do  not 
ask  it  too  eagerly,  as  if  it  were  better  for  us  than 
toil  —  an  inward  peace,  or  rest  from  care  and  from 
strife  and  from  fear,  passing  all  understanding,  • —  such 
as  the  world  never  gave. 


DIVINE  REWARDS.  249 

I  have  read  of  a  devoted  sister  of  charity  who, 
year  after  year,  attended  a  division  of  the  army  of 
France  in  every  campaign,  to  care  for  the  wounded 
and  watch  with  the  sick.  Her  energy,  courage,  gentle 
ness,  and  presence  of  mind  saved  many  lives,  and  gained 
her  the  reverence  and  admiration  of  officers  and  men. 
On  the  field  of  slaughter  and  agony,  her  impartial, 
Christlike  compassion  made  no  distinction  between  her 
own  people  and  the  enemy  ;  and  three  foreign  empires 
—  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia  —  conferred  upon  her 
crosses  of  honor.  From  her  own  nation  it  was  contrary 
to  the  rules  of  her  order  that  she  should  receive  any 
badge  or  decoration,  as  a  reward  for  her  services.  But 
the  gratitude  of  the  generous  soldiers  found  out  a  way 
to  remunerate  her  as  beautiful  as  it  was  appropriate. 
Knowing  well  whence  her  lofty  pleasures  sprang,  they 
petitioned  and  obtained  for  her,  from  the  minister  of 
war,  the  privilege  of  pardoning,  every  year,  two  crimi 
nals  condemned  to  death.  This  is  what  I  mean  by 
rewards  in  kind.  It  gives  us,  I  think,  some  feeble  con 
ception  of  what  may  be  the  noble  joy  and  the  spiritual 
recompense  of  heaven. 

"  For  when  the  power  of  imparting  good 
Is  equal  to  the  will,  the  human  soul 
Requires  no  other  heaven." 

"If  we  love  one  another,  God  dwelleth  in  us." 

But,  0  greater  mystery  yet,  which  faith  must  still 
accept  or  die,  —  for  God  leads  us  to  himself  through 
ways  that  we  know  not,  —  he  rewards  us  sometimes,  in 
his  deepest  love,  only  by  setting  us  to  the  performance 
of  larger  and  harder  tasks  ;  only  by  beckoning  us  on 
to  steeper  heights,  with  sharper  rocks,  where  we  must 
climb ;  only  by  handing  down  to  us  grander  opportuni- 


250  DIVINE   REWARDS. 

ties  of  endurance ;  only  by  calling  us  011  and  up,  with 
his  own  animating  voice,  to  some  more  splendid 
because  more  grievous  sacrifices.  These  also,  to  the 
truly  brave  and  truly  consecrated  heart,  are  rewards. 
On  the  heads  of  some  of  his  children  God  sets  special 
sufferings  as  crowns  of  honor,  as  signs  what  great 
things  he  has  yet  in  reserve  for  them,  because  he  will 
make  these  crosses  ladders  of  light  whereby  they  shall 
ascend  nearer  to  himself.  And  to  all  that  are  truly  his, 
when  he  would  give  his  greatest  reward,  he  gives  him 
self,  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  his  Son.  Or,  if  we  will  have  it 
set  in  music,  we  shall  find  it  in  a  brave  and  lofty  hymn 
of  Francis  Xavier  : 

"  My  God,  I  love  thcc,  not  because 

I  hope  for  heaven  thereby  ; 
Nor  because  they  who  love  thec  not 
Must  burn  eternally. 

"  Thou,  O  my  Jesus,  thou  didst  me 

Upon  the  cross  embrace  ;  — 
For  me  didst  bear  the  nails  and  spear, 

And  manifold  disgrace ; 
And  griefs  and  torments  numberless, 

And  sweat  of  agony,  — 
E'en  death  itself,  —  and  all  for  one 

Who  was  thine  enemy  ! 

"  Then  why,  O  blessed  Jesus  Christ, 

Shall  I  not  love  thee  well, 
Not  for  the  sake  of  winning  heaven  — 

Or  of  escaping  hell,  — 
Not  with  the  hope  of  gaining  aught, 

Not  seeking  a  reward, 
But  as  thyself  hast  love'd  me, 

O  ever-loving  Lord  !  " 

It  is  well  to  seek  salvation  ;  —  that  old  phraseology  is 
not  mistaken.  Only  we  must  remember  salvation  is 
not  a  thrifty,  self-promoting  concern,  by  which  we  just 


DIVINE   REWARDS.  251 

graze  and  enter  the  gates  of  Eden,  and  get  somehow 
landed  in  a  place  of  comfort,  where  there  is  no  hard  work. 
Christian  salvation  is  a  spiritual  state,  here  or  hereafter, 
where  nobler  and  heartier  service  can  be  done  for  God 
and  man.  That  is  a  weighty  saying  of  St.  Augustine  : 
"  God  counts  among  the  reprobate  not  only  those  who 
have  received  their  comfort  on  earth,  but  those  who 
grieve  because  they  have  not."  It  is  right  to  exhort 
men  to  make  sure  their  calling  and  election  in  heaven. 
Only,  we  must  remember,  heaven  is  not  a  spot  to  lie 
down  in,  and  there,  on  our  couches,  tuning  our  harps, 
to  think  how  much  misery  we  have  personally  escaped. 
The  Christian  heaven  is  an  exalted  society  of  self-sacri 
ficing  spirits,  bound  together  in  mutual  fellowship  by 
their  common  consecration  to  Him  who  is  above  them, 
where  each  accepted  soul  will  go  from  strength  to 
strength,  run  and  not  be  weary,  toil  and  not  faint, 
aspire  and  not  be  baffled,  do  good  and  not  be  misinter 
preted,  and  will  be  assimilated  in  ever  closer  and  closer 
affinity  to  Him  who  is  its  Light  and  Life,  in  whom 
whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  shall  never  die. 

Let  us  fearlessly  carry  our  standard  beyond  the  old 
line  of  our  inferior  moods.  And  if  any  of  us  find  we  are 
asking  for  a  religion  that  shall  make  us  comfortable,  or 
put  us  at  ease,  be  sure  we  are  asking,  out  of  a  false 
spirit,  what  no  reverential  prayer  should  dare  to  peti 
tion,  —  what  cannot  be,  —  and  are  no  longer  in  a  pos 
ture  to  receive  the  Master's  gifts,  nor  the  favor  of  our 
God.  For  of  our  Christian  religion  the  badge  is  a  cross, 
—  even  as  self-forgetfulness  is  the  spirit,  love  is  the 
motive,  disinterestedness  is  the  principle,  faith  is  the 
inmost  spring,  "  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ "  the 
first  lesson  and  the  last. 


SEEMON    XIY. 

3  4 

THE   SECRET   OF  THE  NEW  NAME. 


TO  HIM  THAT  OVERCOMETH  WILL  I  GIVE  A  WHITE  STONE,  AND 
IN  THE  STONE  A  NEW  NAME  WRITTEN,  WHICH  NO  MAN  KNOW- 
ETH  SAVING  HE  THAT  RECEIVETH  IT. Rev.  ii.  1 7. 


THE  Book  which  is  the  grand  interpreter  of  man's 
inward  nature  and  relations  makes  repeated  refer 
ences  to  the  sacred  power  of  names.  In  the  Biblical 
view,  to  give  anything  a  name  is  to  perform  an  act  of 
religion.  What  is  it?  It  is  to  apply  to  some  indi 
vidual  object,  having  God  for  its  maker,  that  sign  by 
which  it  shall  be  known,  separated  from  other  things, 
and  called :  and  surely  that  ought  to  be  done  rever 
ently,  as  in  the  presence  of  Him  from  whom  all  things 
came,  and  to  whom  all  things  are  known.  In  the  origi 
nal  design,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  God  meant  there 
should  be  some  special  correspondence  between  the 
qualities  of  each  thing  and  the  name  it  bears.  This 
gives  to  names  their  highest  significance,  makes  them 
descriptions  or  pictures,  and  in  a  manner  judgments, 
of  the  object  they  are  applied  to.  And  when  we  think 
of  the  moral  consequences  that  may  be  involved,  it  is 
not  strange  that  in  the  Divine  history  of  the  creation 
such  prominence  is  given  to  that  critical  and  privileged 


THE  SECEET  OF  THE  NEW  NAME.        255 

hour  when  "  the  Lord  brought  every  beast  of  the  field 
and  every  fowl  of  the  air  to  Adam,  to  see  what  he 
would  call  them :  and  whatsoever  Adam  called  every 
living  creature,  that  was  the  name  thereof."  To  every 
discoverer,  explorer,  inventor,  and  original  mind  in 
science,  the  same  privilege  and  trust  and  duty  have 
been  committed,  in  a  degree,  ever  since. 

When  we  rise  to  the  plane  of  human  life,  this  same 
sanctity  of  names  becomes  more  evident  yet.  Because 
then  they  come  to  stand  not  only  for  individual  exist 
ences,  but  for  conscious  beings.  They  discriminate  not 
things,  but  persons,  with  will,  conscience,  purpose,  ac- 
countableness,  and  every  other  attribute  of  personality. 
They  mark  off  soul  from  soul,  among  the  infinite  ranks 
and  gradations  of  the  immortal  family,  on  earth  and 
in  heaven,  that  no  man  can  number.  It  must  be  for 
this  high  reason  that  the  first  and  characteristic  ordi 
nance  of  the  Christian  Church  —  Baptism  —  is  asso 
ciated  with  the  giving  to  the  person  of  his  proper  name, 
—his  Christian  name,  we  say.  It  means  the  recognition 
before  the  Father,  the  Son,  the  Holy  Ghost,  —  all  of 
these  august  and  separate  names  to  be  spoken  there, — 
the  recognition  of  the  child's  personal  being,  yet  as 
belonging  to  the  social  body  or  Family  in  the  Church. 
The  old  Church-catechisms  tacitly  assume  the  same 
truth.  If  you  ask  those  who  profoundly  comprehend 
the  spirit  beneath  their  letter,  they  will  tell  you  that 
first  question  —  "What  is  your  name?"  —  is  put  to 
the  candidate,  on  his  way  to  the  Lord's  table,  and 
put  even  when  the  name  is  well  known  to  the  ques 
tioner,  to  point  to  the  fact  of  separate,  responsible  life  ; 
because  the  Head  of  the  Church  asks  a  personal  relation 
to  each  member  by  name,  and  would  appeal  to  the  in- 

22 


256  THE   SECRET   OF   THE   NEW   NAME. 

most  soul  of  the  young  disciple,  making  him  think  who 
he  is,  whose  he  is,  and  how  he  shall  answer  for  himself 
when  he  is  called  again  at  the  Judgment;  "singling  that 
special  child  out  from  all  the  millions,"  —  making  him 
stand  alone,  and  "  confess  that  he  is  a  person,"  with  a 
life's  work  to  do  that  none  can  do  for  him,  a  person 
whom  Christ  died  to  redeem.  This  is  what  they  will 
tell  you,  to  explain  that  question.  Christ  himself  once 
very  tenderly  and  strikingly  affirms  his  intimate  per 
sonal  remembrance  and  regard  for  every  such  member, 
even  the  least  and  the  weakest,  where  he  says  that  he, 
the  Good  Shepherd,  calls  every  one  of  his  own  by  their 
names.  What  the  organs  or  modes  of  communication 
shall  be  in  the  spiritual  world,  is  beyond  us.  But,  if  we 
we  were  in  the  habit  of  connecting,  in  our  common 
thoughts,  the  life  we  are  living  now  with  the  life  that 
we  live  after  death,  as  much  as  the  spiritual  laws  allow 
us,  and  as  much  as  simple  Christianity  teaches  us  and 
all  holy  comfort  entreats  us  to  do,  then  we  should  ac 
count  it  nothing  unnatural  that  our  Christian  names 
should  attend  our  identities  everywhere ;  and  that,  at 
our  final  awaking  hereafter,  love  and  sympathy  should 
call  us  by  the  same  names  that  were  so  dear  and  so 
definite  on  earth,  —  the  same,  perhaps,  and  yet  "  new" 
names,  because  so  modified,  in  the  language  of  the  skies, 
that  each  shall  betray  the  quality  or  character  of  the 
life  that  has  been  lived  in  the  body,  —  the  name  a 
judgment. 

If  we  ascend  still  higher,  from  the  human  to  the  Di 
vine,  the  power  of  names  is  more  signally  manifested 
yet.  Him  whom  no  eye  hath  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  nor 
hand  touched,  we  yet  know  by  his  wonderful  and  Al 
mighty  name, — our  God.  It  is  striking  that  the  Scrip- 


THE  SECRET  OF  THE  NEW  NAME.        257 

tures  everywhere  speak  of  the  "  name  "  of  the  Lord  as 
of  the  Lord  himself.  His  name  is  his  glory,  his  pres 
ence,  his  power,  his  wisdom,  his  person,  —  and  it  is  the 
only  outward  sign,  or  bond,  of  personal  communi 
cation  between  him  and  us  who  are  allowed  to  make 
no  image  of  him.  How  impressive,  too,  that  when  his 
great  manifestation  is  to  be  made  in  humanity,  it  is  de 
clared  that  the  eternal  ivord  is  made  flesh.  That  is  the 
uttered  Divinity,  —  the  God  pronounced,  communicated 
to  man,  through  the  incarnation.  And  when  we  breathe 
the  universal  prayer  of  childhood  and  age,  taught  us  by 
the  Saviour,  we  entreat  first  of  all,  "  Hallowed  be  thy 
name  !  "  In  the  dawn  of  Hebrew  history,  by  the  voices 
of  prophecy,  God  gave  his  people  a  memorial  name,  by 
which  he  should  be  known  forever,  —  Jehovah,  —  a  seal 
upon  his  covenant  with  them,  a  name  of  promise,  point 
ing  to  a  deliverance  to  come,  a  Saviour,  a  Messiah ;  and 
that  mighty  name  stood,  on  the  lips  and  in  the  mind 
of  the  chosen  tribes,  through  centuries  of  trial  and  ex 
pectation,  an  impregnable  defence,  an  inexhaustible 
hope,  an  unfailing  herald  of  redemption  to  come.  After 
the  Redeemer  appeared,  the  universal  command  to 
Christendom  was  that  its  prayers  should  be  lifted  to  the 
Father  "  in  the  name  "  of  Christ. 

So  we  arrive  at  the  point  of  the  text :  "To  him  that 
overcometh,"  saith  that  Faithful  and  True  Witness,  the 
First  and  the  Last,  "  will  I  give  to  eat  of  the  hidden 
manna,  and  will  give  him  a  white  stone,  and  in  the 
stone  a  new  name  written,  which  no  man  knoweth 
saving  he  that  receive th  it."  I  suppose  most  readers 
feel  that,  besides  what  the  understanding  clearly  grasps 
in  this  sentence,  there  goes  along  a  certain  mystery  of 
suggestion,  an  influence  not  defined,  making  up  a  part 


258        THE  SECRET  OF  THE  NEW  NAME. 

of  the  beauty,  and  indeed  a  part  of  the  power,  of  the 
promise.  It  leads  us  to  expect  more  than  we  can 
exactly  shape,  and  so  stimulates  wonder  as  well  as  faith. 
This  is  often  true  of  the  higher  utterances,  the  raised 
expression  of  poetic  or  prophetic  states,  where  more 
comes  to  the  soul  than  precise  phrases  can  carry. 
Much  of  the  associative  impression  of  sacred  language 
is  of  this  sort ;  another  more  open  part  of  our  nature 
than  the  reason  is  addressed  and  moved,  especially 
where  the  imagination  is  made  an  active  vehicle  of  the 
spiritual  message,  as  in  the  Apocalypse,  where  the  text 
occurs.  The  hearts  of  children  are  often  lifted  we 
know,  to  reverence  and  holy  moods,  by  passages  they 
cannot  analyze  nor  interpret;  and  before  the  infinite 
truths  told  us  here  from  heaven  the  strongest  intellects 
are  little  more  than  children. 

The  likeliest  explanation  of  the  writer's  figure  is 
found  by  a  reference  to  an  ancient  custom  connected 
with  the  public  games.  The  victor,  "  he  that  overcorn- 
eth,"  among  other  honors  was  presented  with  a  white 
stone  —  tessera  —  with  his  name  inscribed  on  it.  Such 
a  stone  was  often  of  two  parts,  each  bearing  a  portion  of 
the  name,  and  was  thus  used  as  a  talisman  or  secret 
token  between  friends  or  families.  None  but  the  two 
parts  made  for  each  other  completed  the  device.  Each, 
whenever  presented,  in  whatever  part  of  the  world, 
would  instantly  match  into  its  place,  and  constitute  the 
bearer's  passport  to  kindness  and  favor  with  the  kin 
dred  of  its  fellow's  owner.  One  of  the  Roman  poets 
(Plautus)  alludes  to  such  a  tally  where  the  name  of  a 
Deity  was  engraved,  as  well  as  those  of  the  parties 
pledged.  The  original  cause  or  incidents  of  the  alliance 
were  the  secrets  hidden  by  the  emblem,  hidden  to  all 


THE  SECRET  OF  THE  NEW  NAME.         259 

but  the  holders.  And  the  rights  of  hospitality,  secured 
by  this  badge,  seem  to  be  the  occasion  of  that  other 
allusion  in  the  same  verse  to  the  "hidden  manna,"  thus 
filling  out  the  metaphor. 

This  much  we  find  hinted  to  us,  at  least,  by  way  of 
verbal  interpretation  ;  and  it  is  enough.  The  spiritual 
truth  which  the  veil  of  figure  covers  can  hardly  be  mis 
taken.  He  that  overcometh  —  every  victorious  soul 
prevailing  by  faith  and  by  righteousness  in  the  long  and 
patient  battle  of  life  —  shall  have  secret  satisfactions 
springing  up  in  his  heart,  known  only  between  himself 
and  his  Lord.  They  will  not  consist  in  outward  ap 
plauses,  in  visible  successes,  in  any  worldly  compensa 
tions  whatever.  The  chief  of  them  all  will  be  the 
silent  assurances  of  His  personal  affection,  who  is  the 
purest,  highest,  holiest.  The  testimony  of  his  friend 
ship  will  be  the  best  reward.  The  token  of  his  favor 
will  be  the  inestimable  good.  So  much  light  does 
advancing  excellence  always  cast  on  old  forms  of  truth, 
a  deeper  life  ever  illuminating  even  familiar  oracles, 
that  the  very  name  of  the  Christ  shall  have  a  new  mean 
ing.  It  shall  be  a  new  name.  It  shall  have  a  personal 
charm  and  preciousness  to  each  several  believer.  None 
shall  know  it  as  he  knoweth  it  that  receiveth  it.  No  man 
ever  knows  the  meaning  of  our  deeper  experiences,  or  of 
the  words  that  express  them,  as  we  know  them  ourselves. 
Just  as  the  Almighty  said  to  the  great  Jewish  leader  and 
lawgiver,  when  he  declared  to  him  his  memorial-name, 
"  By  that  name  thy  fathers  did  not  know  me,"  though 
they  had  used  that  name  for  hundreds  of  years,  — 
meaning  that  in  their  less  luminous  state  and  backward 
education  they  did  not  comprehend  or  realize  what  the 
name  contained,  —  so,  to  each  growing  nature  of  man 
22* 


260        THE  SECRET  OF  THE  NEW  NAME. 

the  significance  of  every  sacred  word  gains  depth  and 
clearness  at  every  step  of  his  way.  What  was  dark  to 
unbelief  is  bright  to  faith.  What  was  perplexing  to 
the  beginner  in  Christian  living  is  simple  and  radiant 
if  he  perseveres.  The  very  name  of  the  Source  and 
Spring  of  the  world's  only  perfect  spiritual  illumination, 
Christ,  has  no  attraction  and  no  interest  to  those  whose 
daily  habit  is  alien  from  him.  But  let  any  walk  in  his 
way,  adopt  his  spirit,  be  joined  to  his  society,  and  then 
another  feeling  shall  invest  that  name,  give  it  beauty, 
and  open  its  gracious  meaning,  and  make  it  a  name 
above  every  name,  —  a  new  name,  to  which  every  knee 
must  bow,  —  known  only  to  him  that  receiveth  it. 

Let  us  divide,  and  state  'in  their  order,  the  principal 
points  of  Christian  truth  which  seem  to  start,  for  our 
practical  instruction  and  encouragement,  out  of  this 
mystical  promise  of  the  Apocalypse. 

I.  The  first  of  these  is  the  strict  and  private  individ 
uality  of  all  real  religious  experience.  When  the  pro- 
founder  feelings  of  some  persons  begin  to  be  stirred, 
as  their  penitence  for  a  misspent  life,  or  their  convic 
tion  of  the  hollowness  of  all  mere  external  virtue,  they 
become  uneasy  at  the  strength  and  solemnity  of  their 
emotions.  They  run  out  to  dilute  their  conscience  in 
mixtures  with  society.  They  are  afraid  of  themselves, 
and  of  those  sober  self-questionings  that  are  their  best 
friends.  Instead  of  letting  the  wholesome  process  of 
conviction  go  on  with  thoroughness,  in  solitude,  till 
they  fathom  their  hearts,  and  find  out  their  evil,  and 
rouse  from  their  danger,  they  are  frightened  to  find 
themselves  in  the  strong  and  unfamiliar  hands  of  relig 
ious  repentance,  and  retreat  into  positions  more  genial, 
but  less  honest  and  less  brave. 


THE  SECRET  OF  THE  NEW  NAME.        261 

We  cannot  come  right  with  God  and  his  truth  till  we 
are  able  to  confront  the  facts  in  our  own  breasts,  and 
accept  their  rebuke.  Sooner  or  later,  some  monitory 
Providence  comes  and  searches  us,  and  shows  that  the 
path  to  God's  right  hand  is  in  great  part  a  lonely  one. 
For  such  souls  as  have  undertaken  the  higher  life  with 
Christ  in  earnest,  it  is  enough  that  the  Infinite  and 
Unchangeable  One  shall  be  on  their  side,  and  compre 
hend  their  struggle,  and  call  each  one  of  them  by  His 
own  name,  at  the  end  of  the  conflict,  and  give  "  to  him 
that  overcorneth"  that  token  of  secret  recognition  which 
he  "  knoweth  that  receiveth  it." 

II.  A  second  characteristic  of  that  true  inward  life 
which  the  text  implies  is  that  its  rewards  are  not  such  as 
can  be  described  beforehand.  No  man  knoweth  them 
saving  he  that  receiveth  them.  They  remain  to  come  out, 
and  be  felt  unexpectedly  in  their  place.  The  very  result 
the  religion  of  Christ  undertakes  to  achieve  in  men's 
hearts  is  disinterested  devotion.  The  instant  the  idea 
of  a  literal  compensation  is  brought  forward,  therefore, 
the  essential  doctrine  is  denied.  Virtue  under  pay  is 
no  longer  virtue.  Stipulated  wages  and  heart's  love 
are  distinct  motives.  The  principle  of  implicit  submis 
sion  to  the  Infinite  Goodness,  or  of  an  eager  reception  of 
heavenly  favor  through  a  grateful  faith,  is  a  totally  sep 
arate  thing  from  the  notion  of  earning  a  self-satisfied 
heaven  by  a  quantum  of  deserts,  and  of  establishing  a 
claim  on  a  Divine  creditor  by  a  square  account  with 
his  demands.  It  is  not  strange  to  find  thoughtful  and 
wise  persons,  as  they  go  farther  into  life  and  deeper 
into  acquaintance  with  themselves  and  other  men,  grad 
ually  giving  up  as  preposterous  the  idea  of  anybody's 
really  being  saved  by  his  merits,  or  a  Christless  salva- 


262         THE  SECRET  OF  THE  NEW  NAME. 

tion ;  —  i.  e.  of  being  such  a  keeper  of  the  perfect 
law  of  God  as  to  be  lifted  into  a  fellowship  with  its 
author,  and  justified  in  claiming  eternal  happiness  as 
a  fair  equivalent.  Arrogance  itself  recoils  from  an  inso 
lence  so  audacious.  If  we  are  never  to  feel  ourselves 
friends  and  co-workers  and  children  with  God  till  we  have 
bought  that  place  by  legal  conformity,  we  must  give 
up  the  whole  hope.  It  is  another  relation  altogether. 
Obedience  itself,  or  the  constant  prayer  and  effort  for 
it,  springs  from  a  different  root.  It  is  a  penitent, 
dependent,  spontaneous  movement  of  the  unselfish  soul, 
towards  the  Almighty  love,  for  its  own  sake.  Faith  is 
not  hired.  Why,  even  in  all  the  loftier  and  purer 
human  relationships,  affection  scorns  the  calculations  of 
self-interest.  There  is  not  a  tie  of  holy  friendship  on 
earth  but  feels  itself  insulted  by  the  suggestion  of  a 
price.  That  preacher  aggrieves  the  finest  natures  he 
speaks  to,  and  practically  wrongs  the  whole  spirit  of  the 
Gospel  he  professes  to  administer,  who  appeals  to  peo 
ple  to  believe  in  God,  and  follow  the  Crucified,  only  for 
the  sake- of  winning  a  paradise  of  comfort,  or  of  escaping 
a  pit  full  of  pain.  Doubtless,  the  scriptural  language 
considers  all  the  mixed  conditions  of  human  want,  and 
condescends  to  stimulate  our  low  and  impoverished 
aspirations  by  promises  of  rest  and  joy.  But  read  on, — 
read  all ;  ponder  and  compare  ;  see  where  its  celestial 
philosophy  culminates,  —  and  you  find  that  it  does  not 
leave  the  disciple  till  it  points  him  to  Love  as  the  fulfil 
ling  of  the  law ;  till  it  carries  him  up  above  offers  of 
hire  to  a  self-forgetful  passion  for  excellence  ;  till  it  fas 
tens  the  supremo  appeal  on  the  voluntary  sufferings  of 
One  who  gave  himself  freely  for  us ;  till  it  makes  the 
cross  the  symbol  of  its  spirit.  Heaven  has  no  element 


THE   SECEET   OF   THE    NEW   NAME.  263 

of  idle  or  exclusive  privilege  in  it.  The  disciple  shall 
not  have  places  pledged  on  the  right  hand  or  left, 
but  drink  of  the  Master's  cup,  be  "  near  and  like  his 
Lord."  This  personal  nearness  and  assimilation  will  be 
enough.  Then  we  shall  be  able  to  take  up,  and  repeat, 
and  pray  ourselves,  this  prayer  of  Bradwardine,  —  a 
brave  believer  of  ages  ago,  —  kneeling  there  in  the  twi 
light  of  a  darker  time,  but  closer,  I  think,  than  most  of 
our  modern  piety  to  Olivet  and  Gethsemane  :  "  Thyself, 
my  God,  I  love,  for  thyself,  and  above  all  things.  Thy 
self  for  thyself,  and  not  for  aught  else,  I  will  always 
and  in  all  things  seek :  —  with  my  heart  and  all  my 
strength,  with  groaning  and  weeping,  —  with  continual 
labor  and  grief.  What,  therefore,  wilt  tliou  give  me  as 
my  final  end  ?  If  thou  givest  me  not  thyself,  thou 
givest  me  nothing.  Thou  dost  not  then  reward,  but  tor 
ture  me.  If  thou  deniest  me  thyself,  and  that  forever, 
whatever  else  thou  givest  me,  shall  I  not  always  lan 
guish,  mourn,  and  weep,  because  I  remain  ever  empty  ? 
Grant  therefore,  0  my  gracious  God,  that  in  the  present 
life  I  may  ever  love  thyself  for  thyself,  above  all  things  ; 
and  in  the  future  world  may  I  find  thee  and  hold  thee 
forever."  "  To  him  that  overcome th  shall  be  given  a 
white  stone,  and  in  the  stone  a  new  name  written, 
which  no  man  knoweth  saving  he  that  receive  th  it." 

III.  Another  branch  of  the  same  great  truth,  and  one 
that  we  of  these  times  need  much  to  realize,  is  that  a 
Christian  piety  is  to  be  prized  for  its  secret  intrinsic 
quality,  rather  than  for  its  quotable  results.  No  man 
knoweth  it  like  him  that  hath  it.  Its  hidden  testimonies 
are  worth  more  than  its  public  demonstrations.  Those 
who  look  for  the  latter  will  be  perpetually  discovering 
disappointments ;  and  then,  if  their  faith  leans  on  the 


264  THE   SECRET   OF    THE   NEW   NAME. 

visible  return,  faith  fails  with  the  failing  harvest.  Some 
things  must  be  held  as  settled,  whether  they  gain  many 
converts  or  few.  The  moment  we  begin  to  measure  the 
actual  power  or  blessedness  of  our  convictions  by  count 
ing  the  number  of  their  disciples,  we  have  inflicted  the 
grossest  affront  on  the  spirit  of  truth.  This  constant 
reference  to  outward  responses  and  results  vitiates  the 
very  essence  and  spirit  of  righteousness,  as  it  does  of 
every  pure  and  sacred  feeling.  Being  religious  for  effect 
spoils  the  effect,  —  like  being  honest  for  effect,  or  hum 
ble  for  effect,  or  affectionate  or  chaste  for  effect.  It 
runs  straight  to  a  base  hypocrisy,  and  not  only  abolishes 
its  own  influence,  but  begets  a  general  scepticism  of 
sincerity  which  blights  every  high  interest,  and  unsettles 
virtue  itself.  Faith  must  dwell  in  her  own  sanctuary, 
see  by  her  own  light,  feed  on  her  own  secret  and  immor 
tal  manna,  be  content  with  her  own  joy,  cling  to  the 
white  stone  with  the  ineffable  name,  and  wait  for 
her  spiritual,  justification  and  victory.  It  is  when  re 
ligion  begins  to  think  more  of  keeping  the  people  safe, 
civilization  progressive,  and  the  public  decent,  by  its 
forms  and  professions,  than  of  keeping  the  heart  clean 
and  holy  by  its  silent  intercourse  with  God,  that  it 
ceases  to  be  religion,  and  degenerates  into  a  policy. 
The  grandest  testimony  to  Christianity  is  a  soul  pene 
trated  and  hallowed  by  its  light.  No  influence  like  real 
conviction.  No  plea  like  consistency.  Society  will 
come  right  when  its  members  have  overcome  in  their 
private  warfare,  and  are  inwardly  at  one  with  Christ. 
The  people  will  be  safe  when  individual  worldliness  is 
dislodged,  and  the  searching  Spirit  of  God  finds  the  hid 
den  doors  of  the  heart  open.  Institutions  will  be  vital 
enough,  and  "  broad  "  enough,  and  full  enough,  when 


THE  SECRET  OP  THE  NEW  NAME.        265 

this  personal  soul,  and  that  one,  and  each  one,  has 
given  its  affection  and  its  trust  to  the  Head  and 
Former  of  the  Fold. 

There  is  encouragement,  as  well  as  trial,  in  this  sharp 
demand  on  the  individual.  The  promise  goes  with  the 
command.  True,  it  makes  it  hard  to  commend  the  real 
satisfactions  of  a  Christian  life  to  those  that  will  not 
try  them.  That  can  never  be  very  effectually  done. 
Literal  descriptions  of  the  delights  of  believing  inspire 
no  adequate  emotion.  Language  itself  is  too  feeble  a 
medium.  After  you  have  exhausted  the  rhetoric  of  ju 
bilant  encomium,  the  untouched  hearer  says,  "If  that  is 
all,  the  poets  and  painters  of  this  world's  joy  match  your 
kingdom  of  heaven."  The  sense  is  wanting  which  can 
appreciate  or  even  comprehend  what  you  say.  Far  bet 
ter  serve  these  dim  but  large  and  moving  symbols  of 
Scripture,  like  the  image  of  the  text,  stirring  hope  but 
never  bounding  it :  the  white  stone  with  the  new  name 
which  no  man  knoweth  saving  he  that  receiveth  it. 
What  Jeremy  Taylor  says  of  mysticism  is  true,  in 
some  degree,  of  all  deep  Christian  spirituality,  —  that 
whereas,  in  other  sciences,  the  terms  must  be  known 
first,  and  then  the  rules  and  conclusions,  here  the  expe 
rience  must  first  be  obtained  before  we  can  so  much 
as  know  what  it  is.  But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
end  is  not  dependent  on  language,  nor  on  mortal 
tuition.  It  comes  by  the  simple  and  ever- waiting  gift  of 
God,  like  the  light  in  the  sky,  to  every  willing  and  be 
lieving  heart.  Formularies  are  not  its  vehicles.  Terms 
are  not  necessary  to  it.  Articles  and  rules  do  not  mo 
nopolize  it.  If  thou  believest  with  all  thine  heart,  thou 
mayest  be  baptized  into  the  full,  deep  peace  of  a  dis 
ciple.  He  that  doeth  righteousness,  in  every  nation,  is 


266        THE  SECRET  OF  THE  NEW  NAME. 

accepted.  Understanding  shall  grow  with  growing  ear 
nestness  of  purpose.  And  he  that  tries  heartily  to 
do  Christ's  will  shall  know  of  the  doctrine  ;  know  it 
more  and  more ;  know  it  deeper  and  deeper ;  know  all 
that  he  needs. 

To  selfish,  earth-bound  hearts  no  secrets  are  revealed. 
No  tokens  of  personal  remembrance,  no  signs  of  secret 
favor,  come  from  the  Master.  True  redemption  is  our 
deliverance  from  that  restless  selfishness,  and  our  return 
to  union  with  God  So  far  the  old  mystics  were  right. 
No  mastery  among  men,  no  conquests  of  self-promotion, 
no  prosperous  economy,  no  career  of  politic  success, 
contains  a  joy  so  exquisite,  and  so  full,  as  that  pledge  of 
friendship  from  the  love  and  power  and  wisdom  that 
fill  the  throne  of  Eternity.  If  any  reply  that  it  has  a 
strange,  unpractical  sound,  the  believer  can  only  take 
up  his  Master's  repeated  saying,  with  its  undertone  of 
mournful  compassion,  appeal  and  lamentation  together, 
"  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear  let  him  hear."  Treatises 
011  the  laws  of  sound  would  not  bear  in  the  music 
upon  our  finer  sense,  if  heavenly  anthems  were  to  float 
down  upon  us  through  the  midnight  air.  As  I  write 
these  sentences  an  illustration  comes  to  me  through 
the  outward  senses.  A  stately  company  of  sorrowful 
mounted  soldiers  are  bearing  out  the  lifeless  form  of 
their  commander  to  burial.  His  horse,  saddled  but 
riderless,  walks  alone  behind  the  hearse.  Rising  and 
falling  on  the  waves  of  the  solemn  Sunday  evening 
wind  come,  from  the  blended  instruments,  the  melodi 
ous  measures  of  that  wonderful,  weeping,  supplicating 
dirge,  —  the  Dead  March  in  Saul,  —  swelling  slowly 
through  the  streets,  winding  over  field  and  river,  pene 
trating  the  silent  chambers  of  the  sick  and  dying,  hush- 


THE   SECRET  OF   THE  NEW  NAME.  267 

ing  even  the  children's  talk  in  a  hundred  homes,  till  all 
the  sympathizing  elements  and  features  of  the  scene  — 
the  still  trees  and  waters,  the  drooping  clouds,  the 
fading  sunset  —  seem  to  join  the  funeral  procession, 
and  weep  with  them  that  weep.  But  withdraw  yourself 
a  moment  from  that  august  impression,  where  death  is 
made  so  real,  —  look  along  the  crowded  groups  that 
gather  to  gaze  and  listen.  On  some  subdued  faces  the 
moving  power  has  visibly  descended,  and  they  wait, 
perhaps  they  worship,  in  this  awful  sanctuary  of  grief, 
—  amidst  these  irresistible  harmonies.  But  others 
prattle  and  gossip  and  jest,  even  there.  Levity  must 
have  its  laugh,  and  the  frivolous  must  trifle,  and  irrev 
erence  see  only  the  glitter  of  the  uniforms  and  the 
sable  plumes,  —  even  where  the  faithful  tomb  is  unveil 
ing  its  bosom  to  take  this  new  treasure  to  its  trust,  and 
Life  and  Death  are  lifting  together  the  curtains  of  the 
"  illustrious  morn."  0  yes  !  It  is  ever  so,  and  ever 
must  be.  There  are  shut  souls,  that  having  eyes  will 
not  see,  and  having  ears  will  not  hear,  though  the 
vision  be  open,  and  the  voice  as  the  voice  of  many 
waters,  and  of  a  great  thunder,  and  of  harpers  harping 
with  their  harps.  None  the  less  do  the  Eternal  Truth 
and  the  Eternal  Way  stand  fast,  and  offer  themselves 
in  mercy  inexhaustible  to  the  needy  heart  of  "  whoso 
ever  will."  Christ  is  that  Truth.  Personal  union  with 
him  is  that  Way.  To  know  him  thus  in  the  first  faint 
feeling  of  grateful  trust  is  the  beginning  of  disciple- 
ship.  To  know  him  finally,  in  the  fulness  of  his  media 
tion  and  Lordship,  by  his  "  New  Name,"  will  be  glory 
and  honor  and  immortality.  Then  will  be  the  joy  of 
recognition,  —  the  Great  Friend  seen  no  longer  as 
"  through  a  glass,  darkly,"  but  "  face  to  face."  And 

23 


268        THE  SECRET  OF  THE  NEW  NAME. 

then,  not  as  the  believing  little  child,  who  asked,  when 
dying,  that  her  Testament  might  be  buried  in  her  hand, 
that  she  might  hold  it  up  on  coming  into  the  Saviour's 
presence,  lest  otherwise  he  might  not  know  her  in  the 
great  multitude,  but  as  the  victorious  seer  of  Patmos 
expected,  —  we  shall  receive  from  himself  the  token  of 
an  immaterial  covenant,  the  "New  Name,"  written  not 
in  the  outward  letter,  but  in  the  secret  testimony  and 
intuition  of  the  "Word  that  is  from  the  beginning  and 
Everlasting. 

IY.  It  has  been  implied  all  along,  as  a  chief  doctrine 
lying  at  the  very  heart  of  this  passage,  as  it  lies  at  the 
heart  of  the  Gospel  itself,  that  the  special  character  and 
privilege  of  the  Christian  rest  in  a  personal  and  con 
scious  union  between  him  and  his  living  Redeemer. 
We  vex  our  ingenuity  straining  after  comprehensive 
definitions  of  the  distinctive  thing  in  Christianity.  They 
are  all  superficial  and  irrelevant  compared  with  this. 
How  uniform  and  majestic  the  testimony  that  rises  from 
all  the  lands  and  ages  of  faith  to  this  simple  truth,  — 
that  it  is  not  rules  of  conduct,  not  systems  of  ethics,  not 
patterns  of  propriety,  not  eloquent  expositions,  that 
inspire  the  believing  and  faithful  heart  with  its  immor 
tal  energy  and  peace, — but  the  simple,  secret  as 
surance  of  being  at  one  with  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  rest 
ing  in  his  Almighty  friendship  !  Where  is  the  fiery 
furnace  deep  enough  to  burn  despair  into  our  souls,  if 
we  can  see  walking  with  us  through  the  fire  the  form  of 
the  Son  of  God  ?  What,  then,  is  the  tribulation,  or 
famine,  or  sword,  or  nakedness,  that  shall  separate  us 
from  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord  ?  The 
mystery  of  that  unity  where  He  who  is  one  with  God 
yet  cried,  "  Not  as  I  will,  but  as  Thou  wilt,"  is  not  for 


THE  SECRET  OF  THE  NEW  NAME.        269 

us  to  understand.  Yet  the  prayer  of  promise,  "  They 
shall  be  with  me  where  I  am,"  is  fto  us  to  lay  hold  of, 
and  breathe  again  and  again,  when  we  are  aching  and 
alone  and  troubled.  So  the  believers  have  found. 
When  the  brilliant,  amiable,  and  accomplished  young 
Italian  woman,  Olympia  Morata,  whose  learning  and 
loveliness  graced  the  splendid  epoch  of  Leo  X.,  had 
become  the  persecuted  victim  of  Romish  tyranny  for 
honoring  Christ  above  a  polluted  priesthood,  then  pov 
erty,  sickness,  desolation,  exile,  tried  their  worst  upon 
her  constancy.  After  she  who  had  been  the  delicate 
nursling  of  courts  and  letters  had  fled  across  the 
stony  fields  of  Bavaria,  with  literally  bare  and  bleeding 
feet,  the  strength  of  the  frail  body  failing,  she  bent 
under  the  roughness  of  fortune,  and  quietly  lay  down 
to  die.  To  one  of  her  noble  friends  in  Italy  she  wrote, 
"  Let  the  word  of  God  be  the  rule  of  thy  life,  the  lamp 
upon  thy  path,  and  thou  wilt  not  stumble."  As  the 
purple  flood  of  life  ebbed  in  her  thin,  white  frame,  she 
said,  "  I  desire  to  die,  because  I  know  the  secret  of 
death.  The  cunning  mechanism  is  near  to  its  dissolu 
tion.  I  desire  to  die,  that  I  may  be  with  Jesus  Christ, 
and  find  in  him  eternal  life.  Do  not  be  disturbed  at 
my  death,  for  I  shall  conquer  in  the  end;  I  desire  to 
depart  and  be  with  Christ."  With  Christ!  So,  the 
world  over,  and  through  all  ages,  in  the  first  century  or 
the  last,  the  true  heart  of  faith  answers,  in  its  final  and 
glorified  hour,  to  the  prayer  of  Jesus,  "  "With  me, 
where  I  am." 

And  the  same  devotion  to  God's  will  that  is  the 
solace  of  distress  is  the  inspiration  of  labor.  We  have 
not  ascended  to  the  loftiest  and  worthiest  motive  of  all 
well-doing  till  we  have  reached  this  mark.  You  and  I, 


270  THE   SECRET   OF   THE  NEW  NAME. 

in  this  little  day  of  life,  and  with  these  poor  powers, 
can  verily  do  something  to  further  the  purposes  and 
glory  of  the  ineffable  Name.  Could  that  thought  pene 
trate  our  common  avocations,  business,  hospitality, 
trades,  studies,  to  what  a  height  of  sacred  dignity 
would  it  lift  them,  and  of  what  dross  and  meanness, 
and  selfish  grossness,  and  besotted  care,  would  it  purge 
them  clean  ! 

We  have,  in  our  present  state,  a  visible  institution  or 
household,  which  is  meant  to  stand  as  the  image  and 
the  threshold  of  the  future  society  or  family  of  those 
who  are  with  Christ  and  in  him.  We  call  it,  as  Christ 
called  it,  the  Church.  It  is  the  company  of  men  and 
women,  not  presuming  to  have  yet  attained,  but  know 
ing  in  whom  they  have  believed.  There  are  many  rea 
sons  for  a  sincere  soul's  belonging  to  it ;  and  one  of  the 
best  of  these  is,  that  a  divine  wisdom  has  so  fitted  it  to 
our  wants,  that  it  is  found  that  in  its  ordinances  and 
its  communion  the  heart  has  a  special  sense  of  being 
near  to  the  Master,  and  strengthened  by  him.  On  the 
ground  of  this  reasonable  and  affecting  privilege,  it 
throws  wide  open  its  hospitable  arms,  and  bids  all  that 
think  it  good  to  be  Christ's  and  Christlike,  to  come  in. 
To  the  busy,  tempted,  world-beset  man  it  offers  guid 
ance,  and  a  memorial  of  him  whom  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world  could  not  bend  from  right.  To  the  anxious, 
suffering,  loving,  dependent,  or  fashion-urged  woman,  it 
offers  the  better  part  that  nothing  can  take  away,  and 
the  bliss  of  sins  forgiven.  To  the  dying  it  gives  the 
bread  and  cup,  the  nutriment  of  that  life  which  the 
body  cannot  imprison  nor  death  detain.  To  thought 
ful,  prayerful,  right-hearted  youth  it  extends  just  the 
guidance,  protection,  encouragement,  that  youth  needs. 


THE   SECRET   OF   THE   NEW   NAME.  271 

The  only  condition  the  New  Testament  requires  is  a 
heart  desiring  it,  and  a  sincere  and  settled  faith  in  him 
who  founded  it.  Baptism  really  seals  the  infant  as  the 
proper  future  subject  of  it.  There  is  no  mystery  to 
puzzle  a  child's  understanding,  for  it  speaks  only  of 
love,  sacrifice,  a  Saviour ;  and  these  are  the  very  reali 
ties  that  we  all  have  to  become  like  little  children  to 
comprehend.  The  reckless,  the  selfish,  the  false,  the 
profane,  or  those  of  ungoverned  temper,  will  have  no 
fitness  for  it ;  for  there  is  too  little  in  common  between 
its  hallowed  meaning  and  them.  But  all  who  have 
been  taught  to  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity, 
and  have  yielded  to  the  Shepherd's  call,  shall  be  placed 
like  the  lambs  in  his  bosom,  —  that  they  may  not  stray 
neglected  outside  the  blessed  home-fold,  but  be  shel 
tered  and  guarded  within  its  endearing  and  loving  en 
closure.  Tender  hands  can  grasp  the  "  white  stone " 
that  hath  the  new  name  written  in  it. 

Nor  are  we  without  witnesses  how,  in  answer  to  faith 
and  prayer,  to  baptismal  vows  and  the  motherly  call  of 
the  Church,  bright  and  clear  discernments  of  spiritual 
things,  such  as  all  of  us  might  covet,  sometimes  shine 
out  in  the  soul  of  childhood.  I  knew  of  a  disciple  of 
Christ  whose  whole  earthly  life  was  measured  by  nine 
short  years.  In  her  sickness  she  said  to  one  of  the 
family,  "  When  I  am  dead,  I  wish  my  pastor  might 
preach  a  sermon  to  children,  to  persuade  them  to  love 
Jesus  Christ,  to  obey  their  parents,  and  think  more 
about  heaven.  I  have  been  thinking  I  should  like  to 
have  him  preach  from  the  text  about  the  prophet  Elisha 
and  the  child  of  the  Shunamite,  — '  Is  it  well  with  the 
child  ?  and  she  answered,  It  is  well.'  The  prophet  will 
come  to  see  you  after  I  am  gone,  and  when  he  says, 

23* 


270  THE   SECRET   OF   THE  NEW  NAME. 

in  this  little  day  of  life,  and  with  these  poor  powers, 
can  verily  do  something  to  further  the  purposes  and 
glory  of  the  ineffable  Name.  Could  that  thought  pene 
trate  our  common  avocations,  business,  hospitality, 
trades,  studies,  to  what  a  height  of  sacred  dignity 
would  it  lift  them,  and  of  what  dross  and  meanness, 
and  selfish  grossness,  and  besotted  care,  would  it  purge 
them  clean  ! 

We  have,  in  our  present  state,  a  visible  institution  or 
household,  which  is  meant  to  stand  as  the  image  and 
the  threshold  of  the  future  society  or  family  of  those 
who  are  with  Christ  and  in  him.  We  call  it,  as  Christ 
called  it,  the  Church.  It  is  the  company  of  men  and 
women,  not  presuming  to  have  yet  attained,  but  know 
ing  in  whom  they  have  believed.  There  are  many  rea 
sons  for  a  sincere  soul's  belonging  to  it ;  and  one  of  the 
best  of  these  is,  that  a  divine  wisdom  has  so  fitted  it  to 
our  wants,  that  it  is  found  that  in  its  ordinances  and 
its  communion  the  heart  has  a  special  sense  of  being 
near  to  the  Master,  and  strengthened  by  him.  On  the 
ground  of  this  reasonable  and  affecting  privilege,  it 
throws  wide  open  its  hospitable  arms,  and  bids  all  that 
think  it  good  to  be  Christ's  and  Christlike,  to  come  in. 
To  the  busy,  tempted,  world-beset  man  it  offers  guid 
ance,  and  a  memorial  of  him  whom  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world  could  not  bend  from  right.  To  the  anxious, 
suffering,  loving,  dependent,  or  fashion-urged  woman,  it 
offers  the  better  part  that  nothing  can  take  away,  and 
the  bliss  of  sins  forgiven.  To  the  dying  it  gives  the 
bread  and  cup,  the  nutriment  of  that  life  which  the 
body  cannot  imprison  nor  death  detain.  To  thought 
ful,  prayerful,  right-hearted  youth  it  extends  just  the 
guidance,  protection,  encouragement,  that  youth  needs. 


THE   SECRET   OP   THE   NEW   NAME.  271 

The  only  condition  the  New  Testament  requires  is  a 
heart  desiring  it,  and  a  sincere  and  settled  faith  in  him 
who  founded  it.  Baptism  really  seals  the  infant  as  the 
proper  future  subject  of  it.  There  is  no  mystery  to 
puzzle  a  child's  understanding,  for  it  speaks  only  of 
love,  sacrifice,  a  Saviour ;  and  these  are  the  very  reali 
ties  that  we  all  have  to  become  like  little  children  to 
comprehend.  The  reckless,  the  selfish,  the  false,  the 
profane,  or  those  of  ungoverned  temper,  will  have  no 
fitness  for  it ;  for  there  is  too  little  in  common  between 
its  hallowed  meaning  and  them.  But  all  who  have 
been  taught  to  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity, 
and  have  yielded  to  the  Shepherd's  call,  shall  be  placed 
like  the  lambs  in  his  bosom,  —  that  they  may  not  stray 
neglected  outside  the  blessed  home-fold,  but  be  shel 
tered  and  guarded  within  its  endearing  and  loving  en 
closure.  Tender  hands  can  grasp  the  "  white  stone " 
that  hath  the  new  name  written  in  it. 

Nor  are  we  without  witnesses  how,  in  answer  to  faith 
and  prayer,  to  baptismal  vows  and  the  motherly  call  of 
the  Church,  bright  and  clear  discernments  of  spiritual 
things,  such  as  all  of  us  might  covet,  sometimes  shine 
out  in  the  soul  of  childhood.  I  knew  of  a  disciple  of 
Christ  whose  whole  earthly  life  was  measured  by  nine 
short  years.  In  her  sickness  she  said  to  one  of  the 
family,  "  When  I  am  dead,  I  wish  my  pastor  might 
preach  a  sermon  to  children,  to  persuade  them  to  love 
Jesus  Christ,  to  obey  their  parents,  and  think  more 
about  heaven.  I  have  been  thinking  I  should  like  to 
have  him  preach  from  the  text  about  the  prophet  Elisha 
and  the  child  of  the  Shunamite,  — 6  Is  it  well  with  the 
child  ?  and  she  answered,  It  is  well.'  The  prophet  will 
come  to  see  you  after  I  am  gone,  and  when  he  says, 

23* 


272  THE   SECRET   OF   THE   NEW   NAME. 

4  How  is  it  with  the  child  ?'  you  may  say,  '  It  is  well.7 
I  am  sure  it  will  be  well  with  me  then,  for  I  shall  be  in 
heaven,  singing  the  praises  of  my  Lord."  — "Father,  I 
will  that  they  also  whom  thou  hast  given  me  be  with 
me  where  I  am."  When  the  children  in  the  Temple 
cried,  "  Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David,"  Jesus  said, 
"  Out  of  the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings  thou  hast 
perfected  praise." 

Rejoice  not,  then,  in  any  outward  or  selfish  success, 
—  not  even  that  the  spirits  are  subject  unto  you,  but 
that  your  names  are  written  in  heaven,  with  the  name 
of  your  Saviour.  Seats  of  honor,  on  the  right  hand 
and  the  left,  are  not  promised,  —  but  to  drink  of  the 
Master's  cup,  and  to  be  baptized  with  the  same 
baptism.  Patiently  and  persistently,  again  and  again, 
by  all  figures  and  comparisons,  now  by  this  image  and 
now  by  that,  Christ  strives  to  bear  up  the  minds  of  his 
followers  above  every  material  and  earthly  impression, 
to  the  realization  of  the  blessed  and  unspeakable  fel 
lowship  between  the  believing  heart  and  himself :  show 
ing  us  the  water  of  such  secret  satisfaction  that  he  who 
tastes  it  never  thirsts  again ;  meat  to  eat  that  the  world 
knows  nothing  of;  the  single  inward  eye  lighting  the 
whole  body  ;  the  Shepherd  calling  his  own  sheep  by 
name,  —  by  name,  —  leading  them  out,  and  they  know 
ing  his  voice. 

Here  is  the  conclusion.  The  satisfactions  of  a  Chris 
tian  life,  however  generous  and  humane,  are  secret  and 
personal,  as  its  burdens  of  repentance  and  conflict  are. 
They  must  be  tried,  to  be  known.  Whoever  waits  to 
know  them  by  description  waits  in  vain.  He  mistakes 
the  law  of  the  heavenly  mind  and  the  condition  of  the 
heavenly  gift.  Christ  grants  them  to  those  only  who 


THE   SECRET   OF   THE   NEW   NAME.  273 

give  themselves  to  Him  for  their  life.  That  life  must 
be  begun  by  each  soul  alone.  Penitence,  duty,  faith, 
prayer,  bear  their  own  witness,  and  bring  their  own 
confirmations.  We  must  trust  ourselves  to  them,  or 
they  will  not  bless  us.  It  is  a  personal  experience. 
Each  name  has  to  stand  clear  in  the  Book  of  Life,  writ 
ten  by  him  whose  memorial  Name  is  above  every  name. 
Only  they  whose  names  are  found  there  shall  be  able  to 
interpret  the  glory  of  his  own. 


CHRIST'S  VICTORY   OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION. 

IX  THE  WORLD  YE  SHALL  HAVE  TRIBULATION  ;  BUT  BE  OF 
GOOD  CHEKR  |  I  HAVE  OVERCOME  THE  WORLD.  Jolm  Xvi.  33. 

IT  is  worth  our  thought,  how  small  that  audience 
must  be  that  would  assemble,  life  through,  to  listen  to  a 
Gospel  that  said  nothing  to  sufferers,  nothing  to  sorrow. 
How  tiresome  would  be  that  monotony  of  superficial 
satisfaction  !  How  the  poor,  weak  hearts,  aching  and 
staggering  under  crosses,  would  refuse  to  come  to  a 
comforter  that  never  wept,  nor  remembered  that  his  fol 
lowers  must  weep.  Even  those  human  companions  who 
are  ignorant  of  grief  sometimes  grow  insupportably 
wearisome  to  our  heavier  moods.  Their  perpetual  gale 
of  hilarity  grates  upon  our  sensibilities,  as  unsympa- 
thizing  as  the  east  wind. 

How  much  more  unsatisfying  a  pretended  Saviour, 
that  was  not  himself  a  sufferer,  or  a  worship  which 
touched  us  only  in  our  happier  hours,  but  never  went 
down  into  the  depths  of  our  darkness,  with  its  grand 
condescension,  to  raise  us  in  its  holy  arms,  with  the 
lifting  up  of  its  promises  and  the  inspiration  of  its 
anthems,  giving  the  garments  of  praise  for  the  spirit  of 
heaviness,  and  good  cheer  for  tribulation ! 


A  religion  that  should  address  itself  only  to  persons 
in  a  state  of  comfort  would  be  like  a  system  of  naviga 
tion  that  should  calculate  only  for  sailing  in  clear 
weather.  The  hours  when  a  voyager  needs  the  aids  of 
science  most  are  those  when  the  night  and  the  cloud 
have  conspired  to  wipe  out  all  waymarks  from  earth 
and  sky,  and  robhed  the  rudder  of  its  meaning ;  when 
the  tempest  shrieks  over  a  sea  with  no  north,  no  port, 
no  light.  Very  little  honor  belongs,  it  is  true,  to  that 
view  of  Christianity  which  represents  it  as  suited  to  no 
seasons  but  funereal  and  gloomy  ones.  It  is  meant 
for  the  whole  of  our  life,  and  sooner  or  later  there 
comes  from  the  common  human  heart  in  us  a  cry  that 
nothing  else  will  answer,  and  nothing  else  will  still. 

Christ  confronts  the  fearful  fact.  He  conceals  noth 
ing,  disguises  nothing,  treats  nothing  timidly.  He  ac 
knowledges  the  humiliating  necessity  for  discipline. 
He  frankly  prophesies  it.  "  In  the  world  ye  shall  have 
tribulation."  We  have  all  known  foolish  parents  that 
were  willing  to  entice  their  children  into  acts  of  disa 
greeable  submission,  by  promising  there  should  be  noth 
ing  disagreeable  in  them  ;  so  defrauding  childhood  both 
by  a  deception  and  a  disappointment.  The  perfect 
Father  never  deals  in  that  way  with  the  hearts  he 
would  mould  to  his  will.  And  so,  when  his  Son  is 
revealing  that  will,  you  see  his  sublime  candor.  The 
medicine,  he  says,  must  have  a  bitter  taste  ;  take  it, 
nevertheless.  Ye  must  be  chastened  ;  it  is  enough  that 
the  Lord  loveth  whom  he  chasteneth.  Persecuted  and 
reviled  ye  must  be  ;  blessed  are  ye,  and  rejoice  if  it  is 
for  the  Son  of  Man's  sake,  who  took  persecution  and 
reviling  and  pain  for  you. 

It  is  no  mere  happiness  of  the  jester  and  the  trifler 


276  CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION. 

that  God  desires  for  you.  It  is  not  the  empty  merri 
ment  of  a  convivial  company,  nor  the  physical  com 
posure  of  healthy  nerves,  nor  the  complacency  of  self- 
satisfaction.  It  is  none  of  these.  If  it  were,  they 
might  be  had,  perhaps,  on  cheaper  terms,  with  no  costly 
ritual  of  sacrifice.  It  is  not  "  cheer  "  merely,  observe, 
but  "  good  cheer."  It  is  a  holy  joy.  It  is  "  that 
peace  which  the  world  cannot  give  ; "  and  which,  as 
faith  knows,  the  Saviour  sufficiently  describes  when  he 
calls  it  "My  peace."  To  have  his  peace,  you  must  first 
drink  of  his  cup,  be  baptized  with  his  baptism,  take  up 
his  cross. 

Woes,  famines,  and  pestilences,  in  the  spirit  if  not 
the  flesh,  are  but  the  beginning  of  sorrows  ;  sec  that  ye 
be  not  troubled.  The  sun  of  your  inward  world  shall 
be  darkened,  the  moon  not  give  her  light,  the  stars  fall 
from  that  heaven ;  but  it  is  because  the  Son  of  Man 
cometh  with  power  and  glory  in  your  soul.  "  Ye  shall 
have  tribulation ;  "  for  it  is  through  much  tribulation 
that  any  soul  entereth  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
But  "be  of  good  cheer." 

The  "  cheer "  thus  offered,  then,  does  not  forget 
trouble,  but  presupposes  it.  Christ  does  not  undertake 
to  give  us  happiness  here  unmixed,  nor  to  give  it  by 
administering  moral  anodynes  to  blunt  the  sense  of 
pain.  He  means  rather  to  show  us  the  ultimate  joy  to 
be  gained  by  the  suffering.  He  treats  it  as  a  necessity 
to  our  spiritual  education  ;  and  so  bids  our  fortitude 
face  it,  our  submission  accept  it,  our  faith  endure  it, 
our  Christian  principle  draw  strength  from  it.  There 
are  three  points :  - 

I.  The  necessity  of  suffering.  "  Ye  must  have 
tribulation." 


CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION.   277 

II.  The  power  and  manner  of  Christ's  victory.     "  I 
have  overcome." 

III.  How  it  is  a  victory  for  us.     "  Be  of  good  cheer." 
I.  Wherein  this  necessity  that  we  should  be  troubled 

consists  is  a  part  of  the  insoluble  problem  of  evil.  It 
is  one  of  the  mortifying  proofs  what  stubborn  and 
untcachable  pupils  of  the  Divine  Master  we  are,  that 
no  way  could  be  found  of  bringing  us  to  our  immortal 
ity  but  through  such  a  system  of  checks  and  penalties. 
We  must  be  baffled,  smitten,  scourged ;  we  must  ache, 
and  weep,  and  die  ;  we  must  suffer  the  stripes  of  mis 
fortune,  of  disease,  of  mortified  ambition,  of  bleeding 
affections,  of  mortal  separation.  The  very  word  "  tribu 
lation"  suggests  this.  It  predicts  the  result,  as  well  as 
describes  the  process.  The  flail  (tribulwri)  in  the  hand 
of  the  thresher  is  to  bruise  the  sheaves  and  break  out 
the  wheat  from  the  straw.  In  every  threshing-floor 
there  is  tribulation  ;  and  that  is  the  world  over.  Blows 
of  pain  havo  to  divide  the  spirit  and  flesh.  The  pure 
fruit  of  goodness  does  not  come  from  us  but  by  break 
ing  off  the  worldly  crust.  John  the  Baptist  shows  us 
the  Mighty  One  that  came  after  him,  holding  the  fan  in 
his  hand,  sifting  the  chaff  away,  and  thoroughly  cleans 
ing  his  floor.  Suffering  is  our  John  the  Baptist,  clad  in 
grim  garments,  with  rough  arms,  a  son  of  the  wilder 
ness,  baptizing  us  in  bitter  tears,  preaching  repentance  ; 
and  behind  him  conies  the  gracious,  affectionate,  heal 
ing  Lord,  gathering  the  wheat  into  the  garner. 

Let  us  not  take  so  outward  an  understanding  of  the 
Saviour' s  meaning  as  to  suppose  he  was  referring  wholly 
to  sufferings  that  visit  the  soul  from  abroad.  The 
worst  troubler  of  the  world  is  a  wilful  heart.  No  man 
ever  found  so  dangerous  an  enemy  as  he  bore  in  his 


278 

own  personality.  Here  is  one  of  our  most  frequent  and 
fatal  misjudgments.  We  reckon  those  to  be  the  only 
afflictions  which  befall  us  in  the  ordaining  of  Provi 
dence,  or  in  what,  for  want  of  a  more  reverential  name, 
we  call  fortune ;  forgetting  that  the  essential  circum 
stance  of  all  real  evil  is  that  it  has  its  root  and  nourish 
ment  in  the  bad  soil  of  our  own  hearts.  It  was  not  the 
fruit  Eve  tasted  that  "  brought  death  into  our  world, 
and  all  our  woe,"  but  the  disobedient  appetite  that 
lusted  after  it,  and  the  rebellious,  selfish  will  that 
reached  out  and  plucked  it,  and  brought  it  to  her  lips. 
That  tree  of  good  and  evil  grows  in  every  child's 
bosom.  We  carry  the  germs  of  our  most  disastrous 
calamities  about  with  us,  and  whenever  the  earthly 
nature  in  us  gets  the  mastery  of  the  spiritual,  some 
one  of  them  bursts  into  a  luxuriant  and  malignant 
growth.  Vanity,  emulation,  love  of  money,  envy, 
hatred,  self-indulgence,  —  these  prepare  for  us  our 
most  dreadful  tribulations. 

You  dread  the  death  of  a  friend  ;  but  you  ought  to 
dread  with  deeper  apprehension  the  dying  out  of  spirit 
ual  aspirations  from  his  heart.  I  am  overcome  b^  the 
loss  of  a  child ;  but  I  know,  if  the  New  Testament  is 
true,  I  ought  to  grieve  more  heartily  when  some  new 
sin  has  defiled  my  conscience,  and  dropped  a  deeper 
veil  between  my  soul  and  the  God  of  my  life.  Tears 
and  sighs  mark  all  our  way  as  we  carry  out  our  dear 
ones  to  burial ;  but  there  are  no  graves  so  mournful  as 
those  that  Mammon  digs  for  our  uprightness,  and  sloth 
for  our  holier  energies,  and  the  world's  flattery  for  our 
singlc-mindedness.  When  faith  in  Christ  ceases  in  any 
of  our  souls,  there  is  infinitely  more  cause  for  private  or 
public  lamentation  than  when  the  most  honored  citizen 


CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WOLRD'S  TRIBULATION.   279 

passes  out  of  his  body,  or  a  terrible  accident  plunges  a 
hundred  lives  into  visible  destruction.  And  yet,  so  far 
from  rising  into  these  spiritual  judgments  of  our  gains 
and  losses,  how  often  we  let  some  petty  outward  calam 
ity  —  an  unsuccessful  plan,  a  bad  venture,  a  bank 
ruptcy  —  wring  from  us  heavier  groans  than  the  sacri 
fice  of  all  our  sympathy  with  Heaven !  There  are  shops 
where  the  ruin  of  a  bale  of  merchandise  is  more  de 
plored  than  a  falsehood  or  a  profane  oath,  as  if  what  we 
call  "  goods  "  were  our  literal  good  ;  where  a  spoilt  fab 
ric  or  broken  bargain  awakens  louder  lamentations  than 
a  tarnish  on  character  or  a  sinking  of  principle,  and 
where  a  reduced  income  is  harder  to  bear  than  a  guilty 
mind. 

We  can  all  conceive  of  a  state  of  society  so  thor 
oughly  Christian  in  its  customs  and  its  estimates,  that 
the  tokens  of  extreme  sorrow  which  we  now  see  misap 
plied  to  the  funerals  of  those  who  sleep  in  Jesus  only  to 
reign  with  him  in  his  glory,  should  be  transferred  to 
signalize  our  shame  when  we  are  conquered  by  tempta 
tion,  or  corrupted  into  crime. 

If  we  learn  to  look  on  moral  losses  —  inroads  upon 
purity,  swervings  from  holiness  —  as  the  real  tribulations, 
the  bitterest  bereavements,  we  realize  how  in  sympathy 
with  our  own  weak  nature  the  whole  creation  groaneth 
and  travaileth  in  pain,  waiting  for  deliverance  by  Him 
who  overcometh  the  world. 

In  connection  with  this  truth  we  are  to  look  for 
another,  viz.  that  which  reconciles  to  our  feeling  the 
apparent  severity  of  this  law,  that  through  suffering 
we  must  be  perfected.  One  might  think,  indeed,  that 
to  be  perfected,  or  spiritually  completed,  in  any  way, 
would  be  honor  and  bliss  enough,  let  whatever  purify- 

24 


280  CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION. 

ing  anguish  come,  as  the  instrument.  And  so  I  have 
known  many  and  many  an  earnest,  convicted  soul, 
thinking  no  more  of  the  pain,  counting  that  the  least 
of  its  evils,  to  entreat,  "  Pray  for  me,  that  by  any 
means,  at  all  cost,  through  any  agony,  I  may  only  be 
purified,  and  these  hateful,  horrid  fires  of  passion  and 
iniquity  be  burnt  out  of  me."  That  is  a  real  feeling 
when  the  deepest  passage  of  life  comes,  —  let  our  lighter 
and  easier  moods  call  it  sentiment,  or  fanaticism,  or 
whatsoever  in  their  mad,  blind  foolishness  they  will. 
It  is,  in  its  time,  the  most  real  of  realities.  And  it  is 
so  simply  because  our  first  need,  and  our  first  good,  — 
unclean,  fallen,  lost  souls  as  we  all  alike  are  before  the 
perfect  purity  of  God,  —  is  to  be  made  whole  again. 
And  this  healing  can  come  only  by  some  painful  reviving 
of  the  deadened  sensibility,  just  as  the  lost  vitality 
of  the  drowning  and  of  many  morbid  bodies  is  brought 
back  only  through  a  physical  torture  that  is  terrible. 
If  we  were  in  a  wholesome,  orderly,  or  sinless  state,  all 
this  would  be  different.  Doubtless,  our  Father  would 
not  then  plunge  us  into  gratuitous  pains  of  sacrifice. 
But  we  are  in  another  condition,  —  down  under  disor 
der,  diseased,  broken,  dying  of  the  sin  our  own  bad  will 
and  guilty  indulgence  have  gendered.  And  how  to 
raise  us  out  of  that  is  the  problem.  The  Redeemer 
alone  has  solved  it.  He  has  shown  us,  in  his  own  cross, 
what  by  our  own  natural  experience  in  other  things  we 
had  perhaps  begun  to  see  already,  that  recovery  conies 
by  inward  suffering,  by  penitential  tears,  by  sorrow. 
Still,  as  at  first,  through  much  tribulation  we  must 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  To  that  end  even 
our  glorious  Leader,  the  Captain  of  our  salvation,  is 
"  made  perfect,"  not  in  the  infinite  and  eternal  perfec- 


CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION.   281 

tion  of  his  nature,  but  in  the  perfectness  of  his  conde 
scending  incarnation  and  mediatorial  sympathy, — made 
perfect  "  through  suffering."  Sublime  mystery  of  God  ! 
Gracious  wonder  of  our  redemption  !  Why  should  we 
complain  of  the  sorrow  that  we  ourselves,  by  our  diso 
bedience,  have  created  ?  of  the  sorrow  that  ends,  not 
begins,  our  real  misery  ?  the  sorrow  that  is  as  much  the 
needed  pathway  and  natural  preparation  of  the  joy  of 
immortality  with  our  Lord,  — joy  that  no  eye  hath 
seen,  nor  ear  heard,  nor  heart  conceived,  — as  the  night 
is  the  needed  preparation  of  the  morning,  or  hardship 
the  natural  path  from  the  wilderness  of  the  far  country 
to  the  peace  of  the  Father's  house  ?  Said  Thomas 
Arnold,  that  pure  and  lofty  soul  still  longing  to  be  puri 
fied  and  ennobled,  amidst  the  anguish  of  his  last  dis 
order,  "  I  thank  God  for  pain." 

If  we  look  deeply  enough  at  both  these  two  sad 
dening  facts,  bereavement  and  sin,  we  shall  find  that, 
though  they  seem  to  wear  different  aspects  as  they  meet 
our  eyes  in  actual  experience,  yet  the  most  sorrowful 
element  in  sorrow  is  sin,  and  what  makes  tribulation  a 
necessary  part  of  the  world's  discipline  is  the  world's 
guilt.  God  knows  I  do  not  mean  to  lay  on  any  suf 
ferer  the  stupid  cruelty  of  affirming  that  sufferings  are 
distributed  in  the  world  according  to  relative  degrees  of 
merit,  or  that  afflictions  are  always  specific  or  measured 
penalties  for  particular  crimes.  But  evidently,  in  the 
system  we  live  in,  the  two  are  intertangled  inseparably. 
Paul  condenses  the  whole  matter  into  few  words : 
"  The  sting  of  death  is  sin."  His  conclusion  follows 
legitimately :  "  Thanks  be  to  God  which  givetli  us  the 
victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Transgres 
sion  is  tribulation,  Just  to  the  degree  that  any  soul 


282  CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION. 

gains  freedom  from  iniquity,  it  gains  a  conquest  over 
sorrow.  If  the  sufferer  had  no  sin  in  his  heart,  he 
would  have  a  perfect  mastery  over  all  the  damage 
that  the  world  and  its  whole  army  of  diseases  and  acci 
dents  and  mortality  could  do  to  him. 

Thus  far,  then,  we  see  what  it  is  that  is  to  be  over 
come  ;  what  "  the  world  "  means ;  what  its  tribulations 
are. 

II.  The  next  question  asks,  How,  by  what  means  and 
what  process,  Christ  has,  as  he  declares,  overcome  the 
world  and  conquered  suffering.  The  most  comprehen 
sive  answer  we  can  frame  is  this :  In  his  own  person  he 
overcame  it,  by  the  divine  fulness  and  richness  of  his 
life.  This  raised  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  not  above  the 
reach  of  suffering,  —  for  to  that  end  came  he  into  the 
world  —  but  above  fear,  above  agitation,  above  sub 
jection  to  any  other  tribulation  than  that  which  came 
from  his  sympathy  with  the  sorrows  of  man,  and  his 
redemptive  sacrifice.  It  is  written  of  the  Lord  that  he 
is  "  afflicted  in  all  the  afflictions  of  his  people."  What, 
then,  is  the  real  triumph  of  Calvary  ?  Is  it  not  the  tri 
umph  of  that  love  wherewith  he  loved  us  before  we 
loved  him  ?  What  is  the  peace  that  tranquillizes  the 
agonies  of  Gethsemane  ?  Is  it  not  the  oneness  of  the 
Son  with  the  Father  ?  "  God  so  loved  the  world." 
We  cannot  hurt  God's  holiness.  We  cannot  crucify  his 
love. 

Then,  having  overcome  the  world  in  his  own  per 
son,  he  furnishes  to  mankind  a  power  by  which  they 
also  can  overcome,  through  his  own  identifying  of  him 
self  in  his  divinity  with  human  suffering  and  experi 
ence.  He  takes  flesh  and  dwells  among  us  as  one  of 
us,  purposely  that  he  may  make  us  partakers  of  his  vie- 


CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION.   283 

tory.  He  undergoes  the  crucifixion,  that  by  conforming 
himself  to  the  law  that  requires  suffering  for  sin,  or 
pain  for  a  broken  commandment,  he  may  release  us 
from  both  the  power  and  the  penalty  of  sin,  stimu 
lating  us  also  by  this  pledge  of  forgiveness,  and  reas 
suring  us  by  the  sacrificial  proof  that  God  is  still  just, 
while  he  justifies  the  sinner  that  repents  and  believes. 

Revert  now  to  the  point  just  shown.  Directly  or 
indirectly,  the  source  of  sorrow  is  sin.  When  Christ, 
therefore,  by  all  the  glorious  offices  of  his  ministry  and 
passion,  breaks  the  power  of  that  evil  in  the  world,  he 
provides  an  infinite  assuaging  for  sorrow.  When  he 
vanquishes  temptation,  he  prostrates  pain.  When  he 
puts  Satan  behind  him  and  plants  the  kingdom  of 
righteousness,  he  subdues  tribulation  and  leads  cap 
tivity  captive.  In  other  ages,  you  know,  the  rude  con 
ceptions  of  the  church  have  given  an  objective  form  to 
this  great  spiritual  fact,  and  have  represented  the  con 
flict  in  actual  figures,  —  as  a  warfare  between  two 
mighty  leaders,  where  the  Redeemer  wins.  So  Mil 
ton,  in  Paradise  Lost.  The  imagery  only  shadows 
forth  a  spiritual  truth,  the  supreme  truth  in  the 
history  of  the  universe.  By  all  the  influences  and 
forces  of  his  divine  mission  into  the  world,  the  Re 
deemer  has  overcome  the  world. 

If  we  choose  to  divide  this  one  comprehensive  fact 
into  its  parts,  we  find  four  chief  methods  by  which  this 
mission  of  Jesus  overcomes  sin  and  delivers  us.  First, 
by  the  sympathetic  force  of  a  perfectly  holy  life,  pre 
senting  to  our  contemplation  the  most  animating  of  all 
conceivable  spectacles,  —  the  actual  presence  of  a  Being 
who  is  literally  overcoming  the  world's  evil,  hour  by 
hour,  at  every  step,  in  practical  contact  with  its  vilest 

24* 


284  CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION. 

shapes  ;  who  carries  from  infancy  to  his  crucifixion  an 
immaculate  conscience,  —  such  a  temper  that  when 
reviled  ho  reviles  not  again,  an  incorruptible  integrity, 
an  inexhaustible  charity,  an  uninterrupted  prayer. 
Whatever  of  inspiration  can  visit  men  from  this  con 
summate  glory  and  divine  transfigurement  of  the  earth, 
—  a  complete  goodness,  —  that  power  stands  to  over 
come  the  world's  baser  nature,  in  Christ.  Secondly,  by 
his  message,  —  the  supreme  spiritual  wisdom,  light  in 
forming  us,  not  the  triumph  incarnate  in  a  living 
example  now,  but  uttered  in  the  word  and  preserved  on 
the  page,  —  the  precept  and  the  promise  assured  by 
infallible  authority.  Thirdly,  by  his  death,  the  propi 
tiation,  gathering  up  the  whole  spiritual  efficacy  of  his 
mediatorship,  and  concentrating  it  in  the  submission  of 
his  agony,  the  bloody  sweat  of  the  garden,  the  mysteri 
ous  torture  that  rent  the  veil,  and  darkened  the  sky, 
and  shook  the  earth,  —  the  free  offering  of  the  blood  of 
the  Lamb  of  God  for  the  sin  of  the  world.  Fourthly,  by 
his  resurrection, — bright  demonstration  that  death  has 
no  command  over  the  Giver  of  life,  confirming  the 
promise,  "  Because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also;  "  showing 
us  our  God  in  Christ  ascending  up  on  high,  leading  cap 
tivity  captive,  giving  gifts  unto  men.  Slain,  indeed,  for 
our  offences,  but  raised  again  for  our  justification  ;  and 
reigning  forever  as  Lord  of  the  heavens  above,  and 
head  over  all  things,  and  in  all  things,  to  his  church 
below  ! 

But,  after  all  our  feeble  attempts  to  analyze  and 
explain  it,  be  our  words  few  or  many,  by  argument  or 
illustration,  by  paraphrase  or  definition,  the  chief  part 
of  the  evidence  must  be  left  to  the  secret  apprehension 
of  the  soul,  touched  by  the  Spirit.  The  most  we  can  say 


CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION.   285 

of  it  is,  that  the  soul  and  its  Saviour  are  divinely  fitted 
each  to  each ;  so  that,  in  ways  transcending  all  our 
knowledge,  by  powers  moving  in  a  holy  mystery  which 
faith  rejoices  to  confess,  sorrow  feels  herself  at  peace  in 
her  Lord,  and  is  satisfied.  By  what  moans  he  hath 
opened  her  eyes,  she  does  not  know.  This  only  she 
knows,  that  whereas  she  was  blind,  now  she  sees. 
There  is  light ;  there  is  strength ;  there  is  peace. 
What  the  world  never  gave  is  given.  It  is  its  own 
explanation ;  and  henceforth  neither  death,  nor  things 
present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height  of  pride,  nor 
depth  of  affliction,  shall  be  able  to  separate  her  from 
this  love. 

III.  The  other  inquiry  is  the  practical  one,  on  which 
both  the  others  bear  their  whole  weight,  —  How  are  we 
to  be  personally  overcomers  with  him  and  by  him  ? 
The  answer  is  not  mine,  but  his  own.  By  believing 
on  him:  not  with  that  heartless  assent  which  never 
touches  the  practice  nor  moulds  the  affections,  leav 
ing  the  whole  man  in  his  business  as  Christless  as  a 
Pagan  ;  but  by  believing  on  him  in  that  all-controlling 
and  all-compelling  faith  which  draws  practice  after  it, 
and  regenerates  the  familiar  dispositions  of  home  and 
work,  as  well  as  the  secret  springs  of  piety  in  church 
and  closet. 

Brethren,  even  our  saintliest  saints  only  partially 
apprehend  the  joy  and  benefit  of  their  position.  We 
profess  to  believe  Christ  has  overcome  the  world,  and 
that  we  have  a  right  to  be  of  good  cheer  because  he  has 
overcome  it,  and  then,  straightway  we  go  and  act  and 
speak  as  if  the  gloomy  burden  rested  on  us  of  over 
coming  it  unaided,  ourselves.  The  very  consolation 
of  his  assurance  is  that  he  has  overcome  it.  It  is  a 


286   CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION. 

fact  wrought.  It  is  a  triumph  accomplished.  Yet  look 
on  the  nominal  Christians,  catch  the  half-faithless  and 
complaining  tones  of  unreconciled  mourners,  read  the 
despair  on  the  cheerless  faces  of  so  many  avowed  disci 
ples,  and  who  would  ever  dream  we  were  the  heirs  of  a 
glorious  liberty  obtained,  and  the  children  of  a  day  whose 
morning  beams,  as  they  mounted  the  sky,  were  the  ban 
ners  of  an  everlasting  victory  ?  Fellow-Christians,  we 
have  not  yet  to  find  out  the  secret  of  redeeming  the 
world  to  God.  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave 
his  Son.  He  has  baffled  evil  by  his  prayers,  trodden  it 
under  the  feet  of  his  virtue,  and  rebuked  it  by  his  word, 
and  nailed  it  to  his  cross.  What  is  for  us  is  to  take 
with  living  gratitude  the  divinely-offered  gift,  to  clothe 
ourselves  in  his  purity,  to  lean  our  sorrows  on  his 
breast,  to  come  unto  him,  —  the  Way,  the  Truth,  the 
Life.  Yes,  fourfold  as  his  saving  offices  for  us  are,  — 
living  as  example,  enlightening  as  teacher,  dying  as 
redeemer,  rising  as  advocate  and  intercessor,  —  four 
fold  must  our  acceptance  be,  —  following  the  guide, 
obeying  the  word,  moved  to  penitence  and  faith  by  the 
cross,  kindled  to  holy  praise  by  the  hopes  of  the  resur 
rection. 

Out  of  this  vital  and  spiritual  assimilation  of  our 
souls  to  his  —  the  true  motive  and  fountain  of  the 
noblest  action  —  will  come  the  consistent  obedience. 
If  the  real  fellowship  of  our  affections  is  with  him  who 
has  overcome  the  evil  of  the  world  by  good,  right 
eousness  will  be  our  cheerful  and  unfaltering  aim. 
Every  morning  afresh  we  shall  take  the  new  day  God 
has  given  us  as  a  new  occasion  for  sharing  in  the  great 
spiritual  conquest  over  evil.  In  trials  of  faith  and 
wounds  of  love,  in  the  weeping  houses  that  renew  the 


CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION.   287 

griefs  of  Bethany,  in  the  dying  of  wife,  child,  mother, 
father,  husband,  sister,  brother,  in  the  public  anguish 
that  rends  all  the  air  with  some  loud  cry  of  perishing 
hosts,  when  a  foundering  vessel  goes  down  into  the 
waters  with  its  hundreds  of  shrieking  victims,  we  shall 
be  steadfast  and  immovable.  We  shall  not  lose  our 
faith  in  God.  We  shall  "be  of  good  cheer,"  always 
abounding  in  the  work  of  the  Lord,  forasmuch  as  we 
know  in  whom  we  have  believed,  and  that  our  labor  is 
not  in  vain  in  the  Lord. 

We  must  never  forget  that  this  is  a  victory  which 
comes  from  no  other  source  but  one.  So  manifest  is 
this,  that  if  you  were  to  take  even  an  unsympathizing 
sceptic  and  lead  him  silently  around  to  the  scenes 
where  believers,  one  with  Christ  by  faith,  are  suffering 
and  dying,  —  if  you  would  conduct  him  through  these 
successive  wards  in  the  great  hospital  of  our  mortality, 
simply  leaving  him  to  contrast  the  pain  of  faith  with  the 
pain  of  unbelief,  —  he  would  have  to  say,  as  the  Pagans 
exclaimed  in  the  midst  of  their  persecutions,  "  See  how 
these  Christians  die  !  "  Put  the  most  terrible  tortures 
that  flesh  and  blood  can  feel  on  the  disciple,  there  will 
yet  remain  an  overcoming  of  holy  submission,  of  sweet 
serenity,  of  blessed  triumph,  which,  as  a  simple  human 
fact  in  the  world,  can  be  accounted  for,  even  to  the 
rational  mind,  by  nothing  else  than  the  presence  of 
Christ,  —  not  by  science,  not  by  philosophy,  not  by  acci 
dent,  not  by  temperament,  not  by  the  bracing  up  of  the 
will,  nor  by  mortal  courage.  And  this  has  been  going 
on  ever  since  the  first  Christian  whose  death  is  recorded 
cried,  in  the  pangs  and  joy  of  his  departure,  "  Lord 
Jesus,  receive  my  spirit !  "  It  is  going  on  in  ten  thou 
sand  Christian  dwellings,  this  blessed  day  of  the  Lord. 


288  CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION. 

Place  beside  all  the  haughty  and  frigid  boasts  of  the  stoics 
the  tender  minglings  of  affection  and  resignation  from 
Christian  sorrow ;  contrast  Dr.  Arnold's  tranquil  words 
in  the  last  hours,  when  every  breath  was  fierce  distress, 
with  the  letters  and  treatises  of  Seneca  ;  see  the  yearning 
love  of  kindred,  the  meek  humility,  the  loss  of  self,  the 
confession  of  unworthiness,  the  patient  waiting  for  re 
lease,  the  whispered  promises  of  the  New  Testament,  the 
lips  too  faint  to  speak  still  moving  in  prayer,  the  clear 
smile  and  upward  look  when  the  glories  of  the  other 
world  begin  to  shine  out  and  take  form  as  the  veil 
grows  thin,  the  calm  parting  with  the  best  beloved,  the 
visible  light  on  the  face  when  the  name  of  the  Saviour 
is  spoken,  —  the  simple  phrases, — "Christ  is  all,"  — 
"  -Come,  Lord  Jesus,"  "Rock  of  ages,  cleft  for  me,5? 
"  I  know  in  whom  I  have  believed."  Either  there  is 
reality  here,  a  reality  of  which  faith  alone  is  witness,  or 
there  is  no  reality  anywhere,  —  and  nature,  history, 
the  world,  and  life,  and  thought,  and  time,  and  love, 
are  all  a  delusion  and  a  dream ! 

So  have  the  true  believers  overcome.  Have  we  not 
sometimes  seen  them  ?  The  long  line  of  witnesses 
reaches  down  from  the  Saviour's  time  to  ours.  The 
last  willing  followers  of  the  immortal  train  have  just 
ascended  from  our  side.  We  listen  to  their  Elder's 
assurance,  "  These  are  they  which  came  out  of  great 
tribulation,  and  have  washed  their  robes  and  made 
them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  !  They  are  before 
the  throne  of  God,  and  serve  him  day  and  night  in  his 
temple  ;  and  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their 
eyes."  We  listen  again,  and  the  eternal  benediction 
still  falls  in  peace  from  Heaven,  —  "In  the  world  ye 
shall  have  tribulation;  but  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have 
overcome  the  world." 


CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION.   289 

How  often,  through  the  world's  literature  and  history, 
have  we  heard  some  ambitious  commander  or  emperor 
babbling,  in  his  vain  waking  dreams,  of  a  world's  con 
quest  !  We  turn  from  these  poor  visions  of  cruelty  and 
blood  to  the  meek  army  of  the  living  God  ;  from  the 
false  victories  of  force  to  the  true  victories  of  faith. 
Here,  on  a  lowly  bed,  in  an  EngHsh  village  by  the  sea, 
—  as  I  was  lately  reading,  —  fades  out  the  earthly  life 
of  one  of  God's  humblest  but  noblest  servants.  Worn 
with  the  patient  care  of  deserted  prisoners  and  male 
factors  in  the  town  jail  for  twenty-four  years  of  un- 
thanked  service,  earning  her  bread  with  her  hands, 
and  putting  songs  of  worship  on  the  lips  of  these  pen 
itent  criminals, —  she  is  dying;  and  as  the  night  falls 
some  friend  asks,  "  What  shall  I  read  ?  "  The  answer 
of  the  short  breath  is  one  firm  syllable,  "  Praise  !  "  To 
the  question,  "  Are  there  no  clouds  ?  "  "  None  ;  he 
never  hides  his  face.  It  is  our  sins  which  form  the 
cloud  between  us  and  him.  He  is  all  love,  all  light." 
And  when  the  hour  of  her  departure  was  fully  come, 
"  Thank  God,  thank  God  !  "  And  there,  —  as  I  read 
again,  —  in  his  princely  residence,  surrounded  with  the 
insignia  of  power,  but  in  equal  weakness  before  God, 
expired  a  guileless  statesman,  nobleman  by  rank  and 
character,  calmly  resigning  back  all  his  power  into  the 
Giver's  hands,  spending  his  last  day  of  pain,  like  many 
hours  of  all  his  days  before  it,  with  the  Bible  and 
Prayer-book  in  his  feeble  hand,  saying,  at  the  end,  "I* 
have  been  the  happiest  of  men,  yet  I  feel  that  death 
will  be  gain  to  me,  through  Christ  who  died  for  me." 
Blessed  be  God  for  the  manifold  features  of  triumphant 
faith  !  —  that  he  suffers  his  children  to  walk  toward  him 
through  ways  so  various  in  their  outward  look  ;  —  Sarah 


290  CHRIST'S  VICTORY  OVER  THE  WORLD'S  TRIBULATION. 

Martin  from  her  cottage  bed,  Earl  Spencer  from  his 
gorgeous  couch,  little  children  in  their  innocence, 
unpretending  women  in  the  quiet  ministrations  of 
faithful  love,  strong  and  useful  and  honored  men,  whom 
suffering  households  and  institutions  and  churches 
mourn.  All  bending  their  faces  towards  the  Everlast 
ing  Light,  in  one  faith,  one  cheering  hope,  called  by 
one  Lord,  who  has  overcome  the  world,  and  dieth  no 
more ! 

"  One  army  of  the  living  God, 
To  his  command  we  bow. 
Part  of  the  host  have  crossed  the  flood, 
And  part  are  crossing  now." 

The  sun  sets ;  the  autumn  fades ;  life  hastens  with 
us  all.  But  we  stand  yet  in  our  Master's  vineyard. 
All  the  days  of  our  appointed  time  let  us  labor  righ 
teously,  and  'pray  and  wait,  till  our  change  come,  that 
we  may  change  only  from  virtue  to  virtue,  from  faith  to 
faith,  and  thus  from  glory  to  glory ! 


SERMON    XVI. 

CHRISTIAN  RESTING  AND  WAITING. 

REST     IX     THE      LORD,      AND      WAIT      PATIENTLY      FOR      HIM. — 

Psalms  xxxvii.  7. 

IT  has  been  sometimes  believed  that  the  common  dis 
tinction  between  active  virtues  and  passive  virtues  is 
unreal.  And  the  suspicion  gains  strength  when  one  is 
arrested  by  some  such  tranquil,  ponderous  thought  as 
this,  out  of  the  old  Hebrew  faith.  Hebrew  faith,  and 
not  Hebrew  philosophy.  For  philosophy,  Hebrew, 
Greek,  German  or  Scotch,  Oriental  or  Western,  with 
all  her  wealth,  never  gave  to  the  world  so  rich  a  piece  of 
wisdom  as  this  simple  precept ;  never  let  in,  by  all  her 
speculations  and  discoveries,  so  clear  and  steady  a  light 
on  the  dark  problems  of  human  destiny  as  shines  in 
this  artless  confession  of  David's  piety.  David  was  a 
monarch  and  a  sage ;  but  his  royalty  blessed  his  people 
with  no  protection  so  secure  and  no  campaign  so  profit 
able,  his  sagacity  contrived  no  maxim  so  profound,  as 
when  he  said,  in  his  psalm,  "  Rest  in  the  Lord,  and  wait 
patiently  for  him."  It  was  a  more  illustrious  honor  to 
the  great  Israelite,  we  should  say,  to  have  uttered  that 
divine  truth  to  his  audience,  —  an  audience  reaching 
from  Jerusalem  around  the  globe,  and  down  history  till 

25 


292  CHRISTIAN  RESTING  AND    WAITING. 

sorrow  ceases,  —  to  have  cast  that  unpretending  word 
on  the  everlasting  stream  of  spiritual  life,*  to  have  added 
that  imperishable  tribute  to  mankind's  stock  of  holy 
confidence,  than  to  have  carried  victory  over  an  hun 
dred  battle-fields  against  the  Philistines,  or  even  to  have 
planned  the  Temple  for  Mount  Zion.  For  he  who  com 
municates  a  spiritual  impulse  to  human  souls  does  a 
diviner  work  than  the  builders  of  empire  or  of  temples 
made  with  hands. 

One  of  our  hardest  lessons  is  to  find  out  the  wisdom 
of  our  hindrances  ;  how  we  are  to  be  put  forward  and 
upward  by  being  put  back  and  put  down  ;  encouraged 
by  being  rebuked  ;  prospered  by  being  baffled.  When 
the  company  in  the  "  Pilgrim's  Progress "  had  to  sit 
up  watching  all  night  at  the  house  of  Gaius,  Great- 
heart  kept  them  awake  with  this  riddle,  "  He  that 
would  kill  must  first  be  overcome  ;  "  and  the  truth  in  it 
has  been  practically  dug  out,  by  trials  that  broke  sleep, 
through  many  a  hard  fortune,  in  every  Christian  expe 
rience  since.  It  needs  wakeful  watchers,  spiritual  eye 
sight,  to  read  that  riddle  of  life,  how  defeat  helps  pro 
gress  ;  how  a  compulsory  standing  still  speeds  us  on ; 
how  humiliation  exalts  ;  how  putting  a  cross  on  the 
shoulders  lightens  the  burden  of  the  race.  But  Christ 
has  solved  the  wonder  in  his  own  cross,  humbling  him 
self,  becoming  obedient  unto  death,  and  in  his  humili 
ation  having  his  judgment  taken  away. 

Gradually,  to  believing  eyes,  the  fact  comes  out. 
Standing  still  at  the  right  time,  in  the  right  way,  for 
the  right  purpose,  is  the  surest  advance.  Waiting  on 
God  brings  us  to  our  journey's  end  faster  than  our  feet. 
The  failure  of  our  favorite  plans  is  often  the  richest  suc 
cess  of  the  soul,  Let  the  pressure  of  trouble  drive  you 


CHRISTIAN   RESTING   AND   WAITING.  293 

down  from  your  heights  of  health  and  pride,  and  you 
will  come  upon  the  primary  foundation,  and  grow 
strong  out  of  the  rock.  Be  exiled  from  the  convivial 
fellowships  of  comfort  and  popularity,  and  you  make 
new  acquaintances  with  stronger  friends,  —  Christian 
self-possession,  and  wholesome  repentance,  and  a  mas 
tery  of  your  moral  forces,  and  faith  in  your  Lord. 

"  Rest  in  the  Lord,  and  wait  patiently  for  him."  It 
sounds  at  first  like  the  lesson  of  a  very  easy  master, 
a  negative  sort  of  duty ;  too  tame  for  a  spirited  ambi 
tion.  "  Rest  and  wait !  "  you  say ;  "  no  :  give  us  a 
positive  doctrine,  and  we  will  listen  ;  give  us  a  task 
worthy  of  our  energies,  and  we  will  be  up  and  doing ; 
sound  a  bugle-note  that  calls  to  close  contests,  and  we 
will  follow  ;  but  no  such  effeminate,  spiritless,  quietistic 
creed  as  resting  and  waiting !  "  We  must  see,  if  we 
can,  what  force  there  is  in  this  answer.  Possibly,  if  we 
search  deep  enough,  we  shall  find  that  where  some  of 
us  fancy  our  religion  ends,  it  is  only  feebly  begun. 

And  first,  as  to  the  popular  distinction  just  referred 
to,  between  active  and  passive  goodness.  Now,  good 
ness  in  the  spiritual  representation  of  Christ  is  a  cer 
tain  interior  disposition,  a  frame  of  the  soul,  where  the 
first  fixed  choice  is  for  righteousness,  and  the  first  fixed 
love  is  for  God.  Goodness,  then,  lies  not  so  much  in 
specific  deeds  as  in  the  faithful  heart ;  not  so  much 
even  in  special  attainments  as  in  that  principle  of  a 
consecrated  will  which  presides  over  all  our  doings  and 
gettings  ;  not  so  much  in  this  or  that  act,  or  even  series 
of  acts,  as  in  that  pervading  and  supreme  purpose  or 
motive,  which,  having  been  appropriated  from  Christ 
himself,  rules  the  general  tenor  and  course  of  life  into 
harmony  with  his  spirit ;  not  so  much  in  outward  mani- 


294  CHRISTIAN   BESTING   AND   WAITING. 

festations,  as  in  an  internal  aspiration,  strong  and  con 
stant,  for  newness  of  life,  and  fellowship  with  God  by 
his  Son.  In  other  words,  a  Christian  righteousness  con 
sists  in  being  first,  and  doing  afterwards  ;  in  a  right 
spirit  before  there  can  be  a  right  life  ;  in  a  changed  and 
reconciled  heart,  in  order  to  a  noble  and  beautiful  con 
duct.  We  must  be  purified  within,  or  no  outward 
cleansing  avails.  We  must  do  Christian  works  from  a 
love  of  them,  or  else  we  never  do  them  —  Christian 
works  —  at  all.  We  cannot  make  our  hands  serve 
Heaven  profitably,  while  our  faces  are  turned  another 
way,  looking  after  self-promotion  or  sensual  comfort. 
It  may  be  the  whip  of  conscience,  or  the  spur  of  threat 
ened  punishment,  that  stirs  us  out  of  our  sluggishness  ; 
but  till  we  begin  to  serve  Christ  because  the  love  of  him 
is  superior  to  every  other  passion,  we  are  not  born 
again.  Make  the  tree  a  good  tree,  or  the  fruit  will  not 
be  good  fruit. 

Notice  how  this  principle  affects  the  common  notion 
of  passive  and  active  goodness.  If  the  principle  is 
true,  what  is  often  called  passive  goodness  is  the  neces 
sary  condition,  nay,  the  interior  fountain  .of  active 
goodness.  A  man,  that  is,  must  be  a  silent  believer  in 
his  heart  before  he  can  be  a  powerful  Christian  worker 
with  his  arms,  or  speaker  with  his  lips.  He  must  pray 
in  his  closet  before  he  can  honor  his  Maker  in  the  multi 
tude  or  shop,  in  pulpit  or  street.  He  must  trust  God 
secretly,  or  he  will  not  glorify  him  publicly.  He  must 
stand  reverently  looking  upward,  ready  to  receive  the 
Holy  Spirit,  before  the  Spirit  works  through  his  body, 
to  will  and  do  Heaven's  business.  That  is,  precisely, 
he  must  "  rest "  his  soul  "  in  the  Lord,"  and  "  wait 
patiently"  for  his  direction,  or  he  is  not  his  Lord's 
man,  a  disciple. 


CHRISTIAN  BESTING   AND   WAITING.  295 

This  is  one  way  of  exalting  the  passive  virtues,  so 
called,  and  at  the  same  time  of  honoring  our  doc 
trine,  and  opening  the  text ;  i.  e.  by  an  analysis  of  the 
nature  of  real  goodness.  Another  way  is,  by  com 
paring  the  two  classes  of  virtues,  and  observing  what 
each  requires  to  sustain  it.  If  there  is  any  such  divi 
sion  founded  in  reality,  submission  would  be  likely  to 
fall  on  the  side  of  the  passive  graces.  Take  submis 
sion,  then,  —  Christian  submission  ;  look  for  a  test  case. 
Suppose  a  providential  loss  of  any  of  your  heart's  dear 
est  ownerships,  your  fondest  hope,  your  cherished  plan 
of  future  welfare,  your  best  friend,  your  brightest  child. 
Remember  that  Christian  submission  is  not  stupid  indif 
ference,  not  proud  self-command  smothering  sighs  and 
stanching  tears,  not  sullen  stoicism  playing  a  dreary 
game  with  fate.  It  is  gentle,  tender,  mighty  trust ;  it 
is  as  full  of  sensibility  as  of  strength  ;  it  is  willing 
ness  that  God  should  take  his  own  ;  it  is  that  trium 
phant,  "  Not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou  wilt,"  which  could 
come  from  no  other  spot  but  Gethsemane  ;  it  is  resting 
in  the  Lord,  and  waiting  patiently  for  him. 

We  need  not  hesitate  to  say  of  such  submission,  that 
in  all  the  compass  of  human  graces  and  achievements 
there  is  not  one  that  more  tasks  the  stoutest  energies  of 
the  soul ;  not  one  that  brings  into  intenser  action  the 
most  vigorous  capacities  of  the  spiritual  life  ;  not  one 
that  demands  a  more  resolute  gathering  up  of  all  the 
resolution  left,  and  the  bracing  of  a  firm  resistance 
against  denial  and  despair.  And  yet,  this  celestial  at 
tainment,  this  submission,  the  mourner's  glory  and 
privilege,  the  compensation  of  patient  suffering  and 
crown  of  spiritual  victories,  —  this  resting  in  the  Lord, 
and  waiting  patiently  for  him,  is  one  of  your  passive, 
secondary,  ignoble  virtues  ! 

25* 


296  CHRISTIAN   RESTING   AND   WAITING. 

Gentleness  01  temper,  and  of  speech,  would  be  reck 
oned,  probably,  among  the  passive  excellences.  And 
no  doubt  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  constitutional 
amiability  that  has  no  very  fragrant  odor  of  Christian 
sanctity  in  it,  because  there  is  no  valiant  struggle  spent, 
in  gaining  it ;  such  fortunate  temperaments  must  en 
large  their  Christian  proportions  in  other  directions, 
and  go  on  to  perfection  in  other  paths ;  because  judg 
ment  is  according  to  gifts.  But  do  we  not  also  know 
some  persons  that  need  all  the  weapons  in  the  Chris 
tian  armory,  and  all  the  watchfulness  of  the  camp,  to 
reach  that  plain  achievement,  the  "  soft  answer  "  that 
"  turneth  away  wrath  "  ?  Do  we  not  know  others,  who 
so  damage  their  public  usefulness  and  philanthropic  pro 
fessions  by  petulant  manners,  vituperative  eloquence, 
and  an  ungoverned  appetite  for  immediate  effects,  that 
it  would  have  seemed  a  profitable  exchange  for  Chris 
tian  symmetry  and  decency,  if  they  could  have  given 
half  of  their  out-door  zeal  for  a  grain  of  that  "  pas 
sive  "  grace  that  sweetens  the  temper,  and  softens  the 
tongue,  and  handles  even  a  doubtful  reputation  char 
itably,  and  makes  him  that  "  ruleth  his  own  spirit " 
greater  than  he  that  electrifies  an  assembly,  or  "  taketh 
a  city  "  ? 

If  we  learn  to  measure  the  bravery  of  Christian  ac 
quirements  rather  by  the  inward  effort  they  cost  than 
by  their  display,  if  we  estimate  character  more  by  the 
standard  of  Christ's  beatitudes  than  by  what  we  short 
sightedly  call  "  results,"  we  shall  find  some  of  the 
sublimest  fruits  of  faith  among  what  are  commonly 
called  passive  virtues  :  in  the  silent  endurance  that 
hides  under  the  shadow  of  great  afflictions  ;  in  the 
quiet  loveliness  of  that  forbearance  which  "  suffereth 


CHRISTIAN   RESTING   AND   WAITING.  297 

long  and  is  kind  :  "  in  the  charity  which  is  "  not  easily 
provoked ;  "  in  the  forgiveness  which  can  be  buffeted 
for  doing  well  and  "  take  it  patiently ;  "  in  the  smile 
on  the  face  of  diseased  and  suffering  persons,  a  transfig 
uration  of  the  tortured  features  of  pain  brightening  sick 
rooms  more  than  the  sun ;  in  the  unostentatious  hero 
isms  of  the  household,  amidst  the  daily  dripping  of 
small  cares  ;  in  the  noiseless  conquests  of  a  love  too 
reverential  to  complain  ;  in  resting  in  the  Lord,  and 
waiting  patiently  for  him.  Have  you  yourself  never 
known  the  time  when  you  found  it  a  harder  lesson  to 
learn  how  to  be  still  in  your  room,  than  to  be  busy  in 
the  world  ?  Of  masculine  natures  that  is  apt  to  be  the 
special  cross.  And  so  that  may  be  the  point  where 
faith  and  virtue  need  to  rally  their  strength,  if  you 
would  be  a  triumphant  disciple.  It  is  a  fact  which  not 
all  of  us  may  have  noticed,  that  of  the  nine  beatitudes 
of  our  Lord,  all,  unless  it  be  one,  pronounce  their  bless 
ing  on  what  the  world  would  call  tame  and  passive 
traits,  —  from  the  "poor  in  spirit"  to  those  who  are 
reviled  and  persecuted  without  revenge.  So  does 
Christianity  turn  upside  down  the  vulgar  vanity  of 
our  ambition,  and  empty  our  worldliness  of  blessedness. 
But  the  subject  reaches  on  to  wider  applications  yet. 
"  Rest  in  the  Lord,  and  wait  patiently  for  him,"  is  a 
counsel  addressed  to  the  habit  and  tendency  of  these 
times  ;  and  no  time  perhaps  ever  needed  to  listen  to  it 
more;  a  time  whose  veins  are  full  of  blood, —  of  a 
restless  temper  and  a  busy  body  ;  more  eager  to  con 
quer  the  world  by  putting  girdles  of  intelligence  and 
bonds  of  travel  about  it,  than  to  feel  its  dependence  on 
Heaven  ;  readier  to  run,  to  work,  to  build,  to  ask  ques 
tions,  to  yoke  the  elements,  than  to  kneel,  to  believe,  to 


298  CHRISTIAN   BESTING   AND  WAITING. 

have  patience,  and  to  pray.  It  is  not  a  character  to  be 
sweepingly  condemned,  nor  to  be  bettered  by  com 
plaint  ;  not  deserving  petulant  blame  any  more  than 
complacent  idolatry ;  but  one  of  which  it  would  be  wise 
to  see  the  tendencies,  and  wholesome  to  understand  the 
weakness.  To  require  the  unquiet  mind  of  such  a  gen 
eration  to  be  still  is  like  bidding  a  person  of  strong  con 
stitution  and  brisk  blood  go  away  by  himself  and  think ; 
and  yet  both  have  to  be  often  done  before  to  them  or 
the  people  is  shown  the  word  of  God.  Indeed  the 
dangers  of  an  age,  like  those  of  an  individual,  often  run 
parallel  with  its  chief  merits.  Social  action  and  mate 
rial  enterprise  and  aggressive  discovery,  which  are  the 
grand  characteristics  of  modern  society,  bring  along 
with  them  the  hazard  of  an  irreligious  self-reliance,  a 
scepticism  about  all  that  is  invisible  and  impalpable  to 
sense,  and  a  feverish  propensity  to  judge  everything  by 
its  show  and  its  returns.  So  the  bulk  of  our  enterprise 
outgrows  its  strength  ;  and  in  the  pride  of  all  his  push 
ing  schemes,  and  marvellous  machinery,  man  comes  to 
esteem  himself  little  less  than  a  critic  of  Revelation 
and  copartner  with  the  Almighty,  whom  the  Church  of 
Christ  ought  to  consider  herself  much  beholden  to  if  he 
condescends  to  say  kind  things  of  her,  and  whom  God 
himself  cannot  fail  to  covet  as  an  ally  for  so  much  busi 
ness  and  motion,  if  indeed  there  is  any  other  God  than 
the  science  that  perfects  the  engine,  and  the  nature- 
power  that  turns  the  factory-wheel.  As  long  as  you 
preach  to  such  a  man  about  his  stupendous  capacity, 
and  stimulate  his  arrogant  activity,  he  hears.  But 
tell  him  of  the  deeper  things  ^>f  God,  of  self-renun 
ciation  and  repentance,  of  a  cross  and  a  consecration, 
of  silent  worship  and  solemn  faith,  of  resting  in  the 


CHRISTIAN  RESTING  AND   WAITING.  299 

Lord,  and  waiting  patiently  for  him,  —  and  yon  seem  to 
clash  against  his  glorious  career  of  aggrandizement. 
All  the  more  do  we  need  this  deeper  and  stiller  element 
in  our  piety.  We  want  not  only  to  work,  but  to  believe 
that  God  in  Christ  works,  and  with  mightier  forces  than 
we  ;  works  through  and  by  us,  or  without  us,  as  he 
will ;  and  that  we  are  at  best  but  inapt  and  incompetent 
instruments  in  his  hands.  "  Be  still,  and  know  that  I 
am  God  !  "  — let  our  loud  march  of  audacious  civiliza 
tion  hearken  to  that.  Self-righteousness  is  farther  from 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  than  the  publicans  and  sinners. 
Will-worship  gets  no  answer  to  its  prayers.  The 
strength  of  all  enterprise  is  in  the  faith  of  its  managers. 
We  lose  salvation  when  we  lose  the  awful  sense  that 
God  is  near,  loving  righteousness,  hating  iniquity, 
bringing  good  and  evil  to  judgment.  The  strength 
of  a  community,  the  strength  of  New  England  to-day, 
is  not  in  its  enterprising,  self-confident,  profane  or 
prayerless  great  men,  but  in  the  men,  be  they  few  or 
many,  who  while  they  are  "  diligent  in  business,"  and 
faithful  in  public  spirit,  "  rest"  secretly  "  in  the  Lord," 
and  "  wait  patiently  "  every  day  "  for  him." 

The  farther  we  carry  our  study  into  the  heart  of  the 
matter,  the  more  we  shall  see  that  this  waiting  for  the 
word  and  will  of  Heaven  is  no  idle  abstaining  from 
labor,  but  in  fact  the  highest  result  and  crown  of  the 
best  spiritual  labor.  Resting  in  the  Lord,  is  not  rest 
ing  in  indolence.  It  is  a  rest  which  is  nobler  than  a 
mere  cessation  from  employment,  or  a  flinging  down  of 
weary  and  baffled  powers  to  breathe  on  the  nearest 
couch.  It  is  the  truest  balance  of  all  our  spiritual 
powers ;  and  how  can  that  be  but  by  incessant  vigi 
lance  and  toil  ?  It  is  rest  by  being  in  harmony  with 


300  CHRISTIAN    RESTING   AND   WAITING. 

God's  wise,  pure  will ;  and,  for  tempted  men  like  you 
and  me,  with  wild  desires  to  quench,  and  passions  to 
curb,  and  sins  to  be  forgiven,  how  can  that  be  save  by 
warfare  with  the  flesh,  and  daily  sacrifices  of  the  spirit  ? 
It  is  a  rest  that  is  earned,  a  peace  that  is  conquered,  a 
silent  joy  that  comes  by  the  godly  sorrows  of  repent 
ance,  not  to  be  repented  of. 

See,  again,  what  besides  righteous  labor  such  a  still 
ness  supposes.  To  wait  patiently  for  God  is  to  hold  the 
heart  open  for  what  God  gives.  Subjection,  then,  it 
implies.  It  is  to  expect  his  love  ;  and  so  it  implies  the 
penitence  that  goes  before  pardon.  It  is  to  believe  he 
will  give  and  guide ;  and  so  it  implies  faith.  It  is  to 
hold  all  insubordinate  and  hasty  impulses  in  restraint ; 
and  so  it  implies  self-renunciation.  It  is  to  ask  for  his 
coming ;  and  so  it  implies  prayer.  It  is  to  rejoice  in 
his  presence ;  and  so  it  implies  thanksgiving.  Subjec 
tion,  penitence,  faith,  self-renouncement,  prayer,  thanks 
giving,  —  these  are  not  elements  of  man's  infirmity. 

Having  thus  rather  intimated  than  shown  how  the 
precept  stretches  its  broad  significance  over  our  whole 
religious  life,  and  expands  into  that  duty  which  in 
fact  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  all  religion,  viz.  a 
vital  trust  and  spiritual  communion  in  God,  I  wish  to 
give  it  an  application  to  some  of  the  prominent  pas 
sages  of  actual  Christian  experience. 

And  first,  there  is  both  comfort  and  courage  in  it 
for  those  of  us  that  yearn  for  a  speedier  advent  of  the 
Christian  Kingdom,  for  the  unity  of  a  divided  and  dis 
cordant  church,  for  the  healing  of  the  terrible  breaches 
in  Christian  charity  and  Christian  peace.  There  can 
not  be  many  Christian  souls  that  have  not  sometimes 
been  visited  by  such  wishes  ;  have  not  longed  to  witness 


CHKISTIAN   BESTING   AND   WAITING.  301 

a  reconciling  of  hostile  creeds,  to  live  in  a  fellowship  of 
regenerated  sects,  to  hear  a  blending  of  all  litanies,  and 
all  lives,  in  one  great  harmony  of  praise,  ascending 
from  one  choir  of  the  nations.  "  Rest  in  the  Lord,  and 
wait  patiently  for  him."  If  it  took  four  thousand  years 
at  the  least,  from  man's  first  residence  on  it,  to  fit  the 
world  for  the  Messiah's  feet,  what  wonder  if  it  should 
need  as  many  more  to  understand  his  message,  and 
breathe  in  his  love,  and  see  the  building  of  his  Fold  ? 
Be  content  if  you  discern  any  signs  of  that  great  recon 
ciliation  ;  if  any  foretokenings  of  that  fresh  Baptism 
and  of  the  Spirit  descending  again  like  a  dove,  shine  out 
here  and  there  on  the  cloudy  theological  sky ;  if  you 
hear  the  voice  of  any  Johns  crying  ever  in  the  wilder 
ness,  "  Prepare  ye  the  way  "  for  that  second  coming  of 
the  Son  of  Man !  Be  it  enough  for  us  to  bear  some 
trifling  part,  in  some  corner  of  the  vineyard,  in  purging 
out  some  of  the  poisonous  suspicions  that  cumber  the 
ground,  and  then  to  die  without  the  full  harvest  in 
sight.  God  .does  not  die,  nor  change,  nor  retreat ;  wait 
patiently  for  him. 

There  are  doubts  of  Providence  that  spring  up  from 
other  quarters.  What  the  inquisitive  and  perplexed 
intellect  of  man  needs,  as  it  stands  dismayed  at  the 
ghastly  spectacle  of  suffering,  slavery,  warring  nations, 
starving  families  close  by  bloated  wealth,  virtue  bought 
and  sold  as  merchandise,  government  perverted  into 
the  trade  of  tyrants  and  their  tools,  patriots  broken 
hearted,  and  a  thousand  other  forms  of  misery  and 
crime,  —  what  it  needs  is  that  calm  assurance  from  the 
Bible,  like  the  voice  of  Christ  to  the  anger  of  the  storm, 
or  the  demons  of  human  hate,  —  "  Rest  in  the  Lord, 
and  wait  patiently  for  him."  His  work-day  is  Eternity. 


302  CHRISTIAN  BESTING  AND  WAITING. 

His  plan  runs  from  the  beginning  of  days  to  the  end 
of  years.  Every  sigh  and  groan  of  anguish  comes  up 
into  remembrance  before  him,  and  every  oppression  and 
cruelty  survives  for  Judgment.  The  burdens  of  hu 
manity  grow  already  lighter,  not  heavier.  The  justice 
of  the  Almighty  is  not  foiled.  The  year  of  his  re 
deemed  shall  come.  There  is  a  Future,  and  it  belongs 
to  Christianity ;  and  there  waits  the  redressing  of 
every  wrong.  It  is  an  inspiring  lesson  of  faith  the 
Scriptures  teach  us,  when  they  show  us  the  old  Jewish 
prophets  and  kings  bending  forward  as  if  to  catch  some 
note  of  the  Bethlehem  welcome,  waiting  to  see  their 
Messiah's  day,  and  yet  dying  in  faith  "  without  the 
sight."  There  are  two  vivid  scenes  in  the  life  of  the 
great  Hebrew  Lawgiver,  not  often  brought  forward 
among  the  wonders  of  his  mission,  which  are  affecting 
disclosures  of  that  indwelling  faith,  which  was  the 
hiding  of  all  his  power :  one,  where  he  stood  on  the 
top  of  the  mountain,  not  afraid,  with  a  tranquil  expec 
tation,  amid  thunders  and  lightnings,  and  clouds  and 
darkness,  waiting  confidently  for  the  Lord  God  to  speak 
at  the  beginning  of  his  great  work  ;  the  other,  when,  at 
the  end  of  his  trials  and  his  life,  he  went  up  to  look  off 
from  the  top  of  another  mountain,  over  the  Canaan  he 
could  not  enter,  and  then  walked  firmly  down,  without 
murmuring,  to  die.  To  us  the  Lord  God  always  speaks 
by  his  Son,  if  we  will  listen ;  and  to  us  the  whole 
Future  is  a  Land  of  Promise,  and  every  hour  an  out 
look  from  Nebo,  if  only  we  have  that  unshaken  faith 
that  is  ready  to  wait  or  to  work,  and  asks  only  to  be  led. 
Bring  the  same  consolation  into  the  discontent  that 
hangs  about  your  own  private  failures  in  duty,  and  the 
slowness  of  your  advances  in  character.  Loosen  no 


CHRISTIAN  BESTING  AND   WAITING.  303 

nerve  of  resistance  ;  slacken  no  effort  to  press  on  ;  sus 
pend  no  prayer  for  the  Spirit.  Otherwise  you  do  not 
rest  in  the  Lord,  but  rest  from  Him,  and  instead  of 
waiting,  like  the  blind  man,  for  the  Saviour's  coming, 
you  wait  for  him  to  pass  by.  But  inasmuch  as  the 
struggle  is  long,  and  you  are  mortal,  and  life  without 
your  Father  is  orphanage,  keep  very  near  to  your  Lord ; 
rest  in  him,  wait  patiently  for  him.  "  With  him  is 
plenteous  redemption."  Leave  all  issues  and  results 
with  him,  saying  reverently,  as  Luther  did  of  his 
greater  work,  "  Let  the  Lord  God  look  to  that."  But 
wait  with  open  eyes  and  willing  feet.  The  splendor  of 
noon  may  be  in  the  sky,  but  if  the  eyes  be  shut  it  is 
quenched  to  them.  Preserve  an  open  soul,  that  the 
truth  as  fast  as  it  rises  may  pour  in.  And  since  you 
know  not  on  what  errand  of  duty  or  sacrifice  God  will 
call  you  to  go  first,  hold  your  lamp  trimmed  and  burn 
ing  as  those  that  wait  for  the  Bridegroom's  voice. 

In  the  midst  of  our  own  houses  there  are  more  secret 
sorrows  than  I  need  to  name.  Every  life  has  its  own. 
Perhaps  there  are  erring,  ungrateful,  and  ungracious 
children,  with  parents'  hearts  breaking  and  bleeding 
over  them,  and  agonizing  in  daily  prayers  for  their 
return.  "  Have  faith  in  God ;  "  every  prayer  pierces 
the  Heaven  of  heavens ;  the  Intercessor  and  Mediator 
pleads  with  it ;  and  its  answer  is  committed  to  some 
strong  angel  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Throne.  There 
are  anxieties,  alienations,  unavailing  affections,  crossed 
desires  and  hopes.  There  are  memories  running  back 
from  pews  in  this  house  of  prayer  to  the  graves  of  those 
that  worship  no  more  in  earthly  temples.  Rest,  mourn 
ers,  in  the  Lord.  Seek  not  the  living  among  the  dead. 
Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  all  else  shall  be 

26 


304  CHRISTIAN  RESTING  AND  WAITING. 

added.  "  Let  us  lie  still  beneath  God's  hand ;  for 
though  his  hand  be  heavy  upon  us,  it  is  strong  and 
safe  beneath  us  too  :  and  none  can  pluck  us  out  of  his 
hand."  0,  impatient  griefs,  and  sorrows  that  have  no 
hope,  be  still ;  and  ye  hopes  that  would  outrun  the  wis 
dom  of  a  healing  Providence  and  a  saving  mercy,  be 
still ;  all  unreasonable  and  rebellious  thoughts,  be  still : 
know  that  the  Lord,  he  is  God.  Remember  that 
"  the  darkness  is  God's  as  well  as  the  light,"  and  "  if 
we  cannot  walk  "  and  work  therein,  "  we  can  "  at  least 
kneel  down  and  "  pray." 

"  Here,"  exclaimed  John,  in  one  of  the  visions  of  the 
Apocalypse,  here  "  is  the  patience  and  faith  of  the 
saints."  Patience  and  faith  are  one.  Faithful  waiting 
is  one  of  the  grand  duties  of  the  Christian  life.  Till 
the  Resurrection,  the  whole  creation,  groaning  and  trav 
ailing  together,  waiteth  for  the  manifestation  of  the 
sons  of  God.  A  disciple,  at  his  private  post,  must  wait 
for  the  lifting  up  of  many  folds  of  mystery,  for  deliver 
ance  from  his  last  temptation.  The  Church  waits  to  be 
"  made  whole,"  and  to  be  made  "  one."  The  lovers 
of  concord  and  friends  of  oppressed  nations  wait  for 
the  dawning  of  peaceful  liberty  on  the  hill-tops,  for  the 
fulfilment  of  prophecy,  for  the  leopard  to  lie  down  with 
the  kid.  The  tattooed  savage  of  the  Southern  Islands 
waits,  leaning  his  ear  over  the  surf,  to  catch  the  sound  of 
the  Gospel.  The  Ethiopian  and  Arab  and  Chinaman 
and  Nestorian  wait,  stretching  out  their  hands  unto  God, 
that  he,  whom  they  ignorantly  worship,  may  be  declared 
to  them.  And  God  watches  and  hears,  and  counts  every 
heathen's  sighs  and  Christian's  prayers  ! 

Let  our  subject  terminate,  then,  in  these  three  rules 
of  practice :  — 


CHEISTIAN  BESTING  AND  WAITING.  305 

Let  it  regulate  Christians'  judgments  of  one  another. 
Our  Maker  has  graciously  diversified  the  forms  of  char 
acter  that  he  will  admit  into  his  kingdom.  Action  is 
honorable,  and  so  is  contemplation.  Not  all  the  accepted 
saints  are  bustling  men.  If  there  are  only,  deep  in  the 
heart,  a  steadfast  faith  and  a  holy  love,  then  a  sincere 
piety  may  be  grafted  on  the  quiet  temperament  and  the 
noiseless  constitution,  as  well  as  on  the  men  of  much 
enterprise  and  speech.  The  heart  is  all.  If  there  was 
a  stirring  Peter  in  the  Apostolic  band,  so  was  there  a 
meditative  John.  If  in  Christ's  favorite  household 
there  was  a  moving  Martha,  so  was  there  a  contempla 
tive  Mary.  There  was  service  in  both,  and  not  the  least 
in  her  who  chose  the  stiller  part.  Nay,  we  are  told  that 
in  the  glorious  ranks  of  celestial  spirits  there  are  some 
who  only"  stand  and  wait,"  and  that "  they  also  serve." 
Let  us  expand  our  charity  by  the  measure  of  God's 
spiritual  economy. 

Again,  let  the  subject  save  us  from  morbid  discontents 
at  our  opportunities.  Let  us  not  suspect  that  Christ  is 
to  be  served  only  where  there  is  room  for  outward 
action, — only  in  the  ministering  mercy  of  hospitals,  and 
the  stir  of  fields  and  shops  and  public  scenes.  He  may 
be  served  as  faithfully  sometimes  on  sick  beds,  in  help 
lessness,  in  prison  cells,  and  within  the  limitations  of 
many  a  narrow  circumstance.  These  compel  us  to 
stand  still  and  hear  God  speak.  To  learn  the  limitations 
of  our  ability  is  wisdom,  as  well  as  the  exercise  of  that 
ability.  "  "Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it 
with  thy  might,"  is  one  precept.  "  Be  still  and  know 
that  I  am  God,"  is  another,  carrying  us  up  to  the  au 
thority,  and  down  into  the  depths  of  Christian  peace. 
Paul  singing  praises  at  midnight  in  the  prison  was  as 


306  CHRISTIAN  BESTING  AND  WAITING. 

majestic  a  figure  as  Paul  eloquent  before  King  Agrippa. 
Martyrs  and  confessors  bore  testimony  as  sublime  in  the 
long  hours  of  dungeons  as  out  in  journeyings,  or  in 
fights  with  wild  beasts  in  the  amphitheatre.  Many  a 
man  has  been  valiant  in  the  use  of  his  strength,  but  a 
coward  when  his  muscular  vigor  abated,  —  showing  that 
his  courage  was  not  of  faith,  but  of  the  body.  We 
are  called  to  be  disciples  of  a  Master  made  perfect 
through  suffering.  The  essence  of  Christianity  is  self- 
renunciation  ;  and  the  discipline  that  brings  us  to  feel 
our  childlike  dependence  is  the  perfecting  of  our  piety. 
Grief  after  grief  brings  us  to  joy.  Broken  in  spirit,  we 
are  made  whole  ;  humbled,  we  are  exalted.  We  gain 
the  great  victory  through  a  succession  of  defeats.  Bun- 
yan's  riddle  is  a  true  oracle.  Presently  after  Saul  was 
stopped  in  the  city  to  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,  we  are 
told,  he  was  led  up  into  "  the  hill  of  God."  So  we  are 
struck  down  that  we  may  ascend  into  the  mount ; 
troubled,  that  we  may  have  peace ;  worried  into  the  rest 
of  our  Father's  arms.  We  sin  when  we  chafe  against 
the  providential  conditions  of  our  lot.  Submission  is 
brave  achievement.  There  is  no  state  where  you  may 
not  win  acceptance,  because  there  is  none  where  you 
may  not  give  your  affections,  and  "  rest  in  the  Lord, 
and  wait  patiently  for  Him."  If  we  are  obedient,  in 
all  the  gentleness  of  faith,  to  the  voice  that  says,  "  Be 
still,  and  know  that  I  am  God,"  then  will  Christ  do 
more  for  us  than  Samuel  for  Saul,  showing  us  his  word, 
giving  us  "another  heart,"  and  anointing  and  crowning 
the  least  among  us,  not  princes  and  captains  of  armies 
here,  but  "  kings  and  priests  unto  God,"  because  ser 
vants  of  himself. 

And,  finally,  remember  that  it  is  in  "  the  Lord  "  that 


CHRISTIAN   BESTING  AND   WAITING.  307 

we  must  "rest,"  —  and  that  it  is  for  his  Almighty 
Will  that  we  must  "  wait."  Any  other  rest  will  be 
guilty  indolence  ;  any  other  waiting  will  be  faithless 
self-love.  It  must  be  a  religious  repose.  It  must  be 
that  holy  and  consecrated  frame  in  which  every  sub 
dued  and  submissive  energy  shall  breathe  the  con 
sistent  prayer,  "  Thy  will  be  done."  This  will  be 
casting  all  our  care  on  Him  who  careth  for  us.  This 
will  be  the  peace  and  joy  of  believing. 


26* 


SEEMON    XVII. 

THE  ADVENT. 

HE  CAME  UNTO  HIS  OWN,  AND  HIS  OWN  RECEIVED  HIM  NOT. 
BUT  AS  MANY  AS  RECEIVED  HIM,  TO  THEM  GAVE  HE  POWER 
TO  BECOME  THE  SONS  OF  GOD,  EVEN  TO  THEM  THAT  BELIEVE 

ON   HIS   NAME. — John  i.  11,  12. 

THESE  expressions  look  backward.  The  verbs  are  in 
a  past  tense.  They  seem  to  point  to  a  transaction  that 
is  done.  The  question  springs  up,  Why  should  we  go 
back  with  them?  Christianity  is  here,  as  hospitably 
lodged  as  most  other  interests.  We  reckon  our  time  by 
"  the  year  of  our  Lord  ; "  the  very  chronology  of  civil 
ization  dating  forward  and  backward  from  his  coming. 
His  name  is  stamped  on  the  seals  that  accredit  the  best 
authority,  in  thought,  education,  and  empire.  The 
symbol  of  his  sacrifice  surmounts  the  highest  buildings 
men  raise,  in  village  or  city.  Even  a  great  deal  of 
modern  infidelity  insists  on  calling  itself  Christian. 
The  Gospel  is  recognized ;  we  are  familiar  with  the 
letter  of  its  lessons.  What  occasion  is  there  for  recall 
ing  its  beginnings  ?  Why  take  our  places,  even  for  an 
hour,  with  the  Evangelist,  and  Philip,  and  Andrew, 
and  Simon,  by  the  shores  of  Galilee  ?  Why  celebrate 
the  season  of  the  Saviour's  advent  ? 


THE  ADVENT.  309 

There  is  a  reason  why.  Christ's  coming  into  the 
world  was  not  for  a  particular  generation,  nor  for  a  par 
ticular  country.  The  causes  for  his  coming  are  in 
every  heart  in  this  place,  —  every  heart  that  beats  any 
where,  with  life,  and  love,  and  sorrow,  and  sin,  in  its 
blood.  The  wants  he  came  to  satisfy,  the  alienation 
he  came  to  heal,  the  depravity  he  came  to  atone  for,  the 
unbelief  he  came  to  scatter,  and  the  misery  he  came  to 
bless,  were  not  local,  nor  of  one  age.  The  need  of  that 
day  spring  which  broke  when  "  the  Word  "  was  manifest 
was  not  Syrian,  Roman,  nor  Grecian,  not  Jewish  nor 
Ethnic.  Humanity  did  not  exist  four  thousand  years 
or  more  with  none  of  the  elements  and  susceptibilities 
that  Jesus  would  personally  meet,  and  after  an  interrup 
tion  of  thirty  years  or  thereabouts  return  to  that  con 
dition.  "  He  came  to  his  own  ;  "  to  a  race  that  be 
longed  to  him  "from  the  beginning;"  since  "in  the 
beginning  he  was  with  God,  and  was  God."  His  out 
ward  appearance,  limited  as  to  time  and  place,  was 
necessary  to  give  form  and  force  to  the  inward  work  he 
was  to  do.  Christ  must  be  seen,  must  be  historical, 
must  enter  into  time  and  into  space,  though  having  all 
time  and  space  in  himself.  It  wanted  all  the  signals 
and  efficacy  of  his  physical  presence  and  suffering :  the 
houseless  head  ;  the  speech  of  which  it  was  said  that 
man  never  spake  like  it;  the  look  that  was  like  no 
human  look,  —  now  healing  the  sick,  and  now  sending 
a  storm  through  Peter's  conscience,  comforting  timid 
women,  and  striking  down  the  stout  soldiers  to  the 
ground  as  by  their  own  swords  and  staves.  It  wanted 
the  body  and  the  blood,  the  countenance  that  was 
marred  more  than  the  countenance  of  any  man,  the 
shape  that  had  virtue  in  the  hem  of  its  garments  and 


310  THE  ADVENT. 

arose  visibly  to  walk  again  after  death  had  done  its 
work,  because  death  could  have  no  power  over  it.  All 
this  was  needed.  As  John  relates  it,  the  word  must  be 
"  made  flesh,  and  dwell  among  us." 

Notwithstanding  this,  and  indeed  as  a  part  of  this 
truth,  it  is  a  low  view  of  the  Saviour  which  insulates 
his  ministry  within  a  brief  section  of  the  reigns  of  two 
earthly  emperors.  The  true  view  makes  his  physical 
advent  only  a  type  of  what  goes  on  in  each  single  dis 
ciple's  soul.  Any  one  of  us  without  a  Saviour  is  like 
the  world  without  him  :  wandering,  weak,  lost.  What 
the  world  had  to  do  each  of  us  has  to  do  ;  to  receive 
him,  to  prepare  a  place  for  him,  to  welcome  his  spirit, 
to  obey  him  as  the  friendly  Lord,  and  trust  him  as  the 
Redeemer. 

The  text  presents  three  things  in  connection :  the 
Coming,  the  Reception,  the  Blessing.  "  He  came  unto 
his  own,  and  his  own  received  him  not.  But  as  many 
as  received  him,  to  them  gave  he  power  to  become  the 
sons  of  God,  even  to  them  that  believe  on  his  name." 

I.  The  Coming.  This  had  an  object,  a  motive,  and  a 
method. 

To  find  the  object,  we  might  go  either  to  the  direct 
declarations  of  Christ  himself  and  his  apostles,  or  to 
the  actual  state  of  the  world  when  he  appeared.  Both 
would  give  us  the  same  account.  Men  had  lost  sight  of 
God.  Some  nations,  rather,  had  lost  it;  others  had 
never  had  it.  All  alike,  if  we  except  a  small  class  of 
Hebrew  believers  like  Simeon  and  Nathanael,  lingering 
about  the  old  Temple,  and  keeping  their  devout  sim 
plicity,  Israelites  in  whom  there  was  no  guile,  —  all 
were  destitute  of  it.  Three  kinds  of  selfishness  had 
blinded  them.  Three  rank  roots  had  struck  into  the 


THE   ADVENT.  311 

soil,  sending  up  growths  of  superstition  and  sensuality 
which  overshadowed  all  pure  religion  ;  self-admiration, 
self-will,  self-indulgence :  three  forms  of  sin ;  three 
usurpers  of  the  human  soul.  One,  —  self-admiration, 
perverts  and  makes  a  rebel  of  the  intellect ;  another,  — 
self-will,  of  the  conscience ;  the  other,  —  self-indul 
gence,  of  the  passions.  The  whole  head  was  sick; 
the  whole  heart  faint ;  the  whole  practical  direction  un 
strung.  In  this  threefold  treachery  and  corruption,  the 
world  had  grown  giddy,  rapacious,  and  godless.  Curi 
osity  was  all  that  was  left  as  the  highest  aim  in  science  ; 
war,  in  enterprise  ;  and  a  sensuous  enthusiasm  for  the 
beautiful  in  art.  Alexandria,  Rome,  and  Athens  repre 
sented  these  three  ambitions.  In  losing  his  God,  man 
had  lost  himself,  as  always  happens.  The  Fall  was  com 
plete.  Faith  in  God  and  the  dignity  of  man  went  down 
together.  With  divine  worship  fell  human  rights  and 
liberties.  The  scholars  and  the  priests  mystified  the 
people,  the  Epicureans  tempted  them,  the  Stoics  flattered 
and  despised  them.  Seneca,  with  his  dainty  doctrine 
that  "  the  finding  out  of  things  useful  is  not  work  for  a 
philosopher,  but  drudgery  for  slaves,'*  stood  for  the 
world's  idea  of  learning  ;  Caesar,  for  its  idea  of  politics  ; 
Corinth,  for  its  idea  of  pleasure.  There  were  gods 
enough :  one  for  every  propensity.  But  they  were 
either  patrons  to  be  purchased,  or  abstractions  to  be 
apostrophized,  or  demons  to  be  propitiated.  Religion, 
where  it  was  not  a  voluntary  deception,  had  degenerated 
into  an  incantation  and  a  ceremony.  The  priest,  if  he 
was  a  pagan,  was  a  juggler  or  a  dupe  ;  if  he  was  a  Jew, 
—  read  the  twenty-third  chapter  of  Matthew,  and  its 
eightfold  woes  on  the  hypocrites,  to  know  what  he  was. 
There  was  intellect  enough  ;  but  the  amount  of  all  that 


312  THE  ADVENT. 

was,  as  Paul  put  it,  that  "  the  world  by  wisdom  knew 
not  God,"  and  never  would,  till  that  "  Logos,"  or  Mes 
siah,  came,  who  was  to  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block 
and  to  the  Greeks  foolishness,  but,  to  them  that  believe, 
Christ,  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God  unto 
salvation.  And  the  literatures  of  the  nations  confirm 
his  saying.  Leave  out  two  names,  nay,  leave  out  not 
even  Plato  and  Cicero,  and  nothing  puts  a  gloomier 
aspect  upon  the  Christless  world  than  to  take  up  and 
really  read,  as  seeking  spiritual  satisfaction,  the  works 
of  antiquity  that  are  oftenest  quoted  in  company  with 
the  Bible. 

The  object,  then,  of  the  Advent  is  plain.  Men  had  lost 
sight  of  their  God,  their  Father.  Christ  came  to  show 
him  unto  them.  Manifestation  was  the  purpose  ;  reve 
lation  ;  the  bodying  forth  of  the  Divine ;  to  show  God ;  to 
reveal  the  Father.  Not  first  by  a  book :  that  would  have 
reached  not  one  in  ten  thousand,  nor  him  in  his  heart. 
Not  chiefly  by  oral  instructions,  which  have  to  be  certi 
fied  to  the  understanding  before  they  can  inspire  faith. 
Not  by  a  mere  creature-image  of  Deity,  for  that  would 
have  been  only  adding  another  to  the  old  Pantheon  of 
idolatries.  This  infinite  goodness,  this  One  Spirit  of 
God,  must  come  in  a  life.  Christ  must  be  the  Son  of 
the  Father ;  must  touch  humanity  and  enter  into  it ; 
must  wear  its  flesh ;  must  lift  its  load  ;  must  partake  its 
experience;  must  be  tempted  with  it;  must  be  seen, 
nay,  felt,  suffering  for  it.  This  will  complete  the  mani 
festation.  This  will  be,  not  an  education,  not  an  inspi 
ration,  not  a  human  self-elevation,  which  neither  history 
nor  logic  hints  at ;  but  a  coming  of  Heaven  to  earth  ;  a 
theophany,  or  manifesting  of  God.  This  is  perfect  com 
passion,  and  effectual  relief.  This  gets  the  sundered 


THE  ADVENT.  313 

souls  together.  Even  stolid  and  blinded  eyes  will  now 
begin  to  behold  their  Lord.  And  when  they  not  only  see 
him,  but  see  him  in  disinterested  agony,  giving  the  last 
gift,  life  itself,  in  the  most  torturing  anguish  of  body 
and  spirit  that  human  death  can  bring,  an  ever-living 
God  mysteriously  passing  through  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death, — this  will  move  and  melt  and  convince 
of  sin,  and  arouse  to  holiness,  and  release  from  the  bond 
age  of  law,  if  anything.  He  who  could  do  this  must 
know  how  to  reconcile  Law  and  Love,  how  to  legislate 
and  forgive,  how  to  be  just  and  justify  the  sinner,  and 
thus  be  able  to  atone  and  able  to  renew,  —  a  Redeem 
er,  such  as  all  weak  and  wandering  hearts  like  ours 
need.  We  cannot  fathom  the  metaphysical  composition 
of  his  incarnate  being.  But  we  can  bow  before  him, 
and  follow  after  him,  and  be  grateful,  and  cry  gladly 
and  gratefully,  with  Thomas,  "  My  Lord  and  my 
God!" 

You  see,  then,  the  object.  The  Advent  of  the  Mes 
siah  was  not  a  movement  to  establish  an  original  right 
of  possession  in  men.  He  came  to  his  own.  It  was 
not  to  create  an  original  religious  capacity.  It  was  to 
open  the  way,  and  fill  out  all  the  conditions  of  salva 
tion.  It  was  to  gain  men's  faith.  It  was  to  quicken 
them  with  trust  and  love.  It  was  to  acquire,  not  a 
legal  title  to  their  persons,  but  the  free  will  offering  of 
their  hearts.  Why  that?  Because  the  one  needed 
thing,  —  a  living  goodness,  —  could  be  produced  in  the 
world  in  no  other  way.  Because  sin  could  not  other 
wise  be  conquered. 

And  in  finding  the  object  of  the  Advent,  we  begin  to 
find  also  the  motive  and  the  method.  There  could  be 
but  one  motive :  "  God  so  loved  the  world."  The 


314  THE  ADVENT. 

method  :  "  The  form  of  a  servant,"  "  born  in  a  man 
ger,"  "  the  death  of  the  cross." 

II.  The  Reception.  This  is  man's  part  in  the  Ad 
vent  ;  the  coming  was  Christ's.  It  was  for  a  few  of  the 
purer,  simpler,  more  advanced  spirits,  of  the  age  of  his 
outward  appearance,  to  welcome  him :  with  what  spe 
cial  illumination  or  help  from  on  high,  in  that  unspirit- 
ual  time,  and  uncongenial  people,  we  can  never  know. 
Here  and  there  a  stranger  or  foreigner  clung  to  him. 
When  it  was  told  him,  just  before  his  crucifixion,  that 
some  Greeks  were  inquiring  for  him,  Jesus  seeing  in 
that  a  promise  that  the  self-sufficient  mind  of  the  world 
was  feeling  its  way  to  him,  cried,  "  The  hour  is  come 
that  the  Son  of  Man  should  be  glorified." 

A  true  reception  of  Christ,  for  every  man  alike,  is  of 
three  parts :  belief,  sympathy,  service.  These  together 
make  up  the  righteousness  of  faith,  the  great  character 
istic  and  criterion  of  a  Christian. 

There  must  be,  first,  a  belief  that  he  is  what  he  says 
he  is,  the  Only-begotten  of  the  Father,  Emmanuel,  God 
with  us,  the  Giver  of  Eternal  Life,  the  Sender  of  the 
Comforter,  the  Everlasting  and  Almighty  Head  of  his 
Church  in  heaven  and  earth,  the  Vine  of  which  his  fol 
lowers  are  the  branches,  the  Friend  of  the  poor,  the 
Foe  of  oppression,  the  Forgiver  of  sin.  For  any  mes 
senger,  ambassador,  prophet,  the  first  condition  of  ac 
ceptance  is  that  he  be  found  to  be  what  he  claims 
to  be :  much  more  for  the  Saviour  of  mankind.  He 
knows  who  he  is,  or  not.  If  he  does,  he  is  all  that 
these  terms  mean.  If  not,  ignorance  or  deception 
would  make  him  less  than  one  of  the  honest  soldiers 
that  obeyed  orders  and  led  him  away  to  the  judgment- 
hall.  The  text  makes  this  part  of  receiving  him  plain : 


THE  ADVENT.  315 

"  As  many  as  received  him,"  i.  e.  it  adds,  they  "  that 
believe  on  his  name." 

But,  again,  there  is  no  receiving  the  Saviour  with 
out  sympathy.  A  plenipotentiary  from  one  court  to 
another,  a  bearer  of  despatches,  a  commercial  agent,  or 
a  purely  mental  operator,  does  not  need  this.  But  the 
moment  you  include  a  moral  purpose,  spiritual  influ 
ence,  the  kindling  of  any  new  life,  there  must  be  a  com 
mon  feeling ;  there  must  be  assimilation.  The  interests 
must  be  felt  as  identical.  Loyalty  must  bind  the 
subject  to  his  King.  Enthusiasm  must  mount  at 
the  mention  of  the  Leader's  name.  If  the  Saviour's 
purpose  was  to  fill  human  breasts  with  love,  we  cannot 
be  his  without  loving  him. 

"  His  own."  There  are  two  ways  of  belonging  to 
another :  unwilling  and  inevitable,  or  willing  and 
hearty.  You  may  belong  to  a  nation  by  birth,  and 
dislike  it ;  to  a  family,  from  dependence  or  self-interest, 
and  care  for  no  welfare  in  it ;  to  a  university,  and  be 
out  of  harmony  and  out  of  temper  with  its  administra 
tion.  But  so  you  cannot  belong  to  the  brotherhood 
that  is  the  body  of  Christ.  You  must  be  in  sympathy 
both  with  the  brotherhood  and  its  head.  The  legal 
ownership  you  cannot  help  ;  it  brings  no  animation  and 
no  comfort.  By  your  creation  you  are  the  Lord's,  — 
his  to  be  disposed  of,  to  live  or  die,  to  be  judged.  The 
business  of  your  new  heart,  "  receiving  Christ,"  is  to 
change  this  reluctant  belonging  for  the  closer  and  grate 
ful  loyalty  of  affection  ;  the  legal  bond  for  the  gracious 
one  of  faith. 

Yet  there  will  be  service  too  ;  only  not  the  service  of 
compulsion,  but  such  service  as  they  that  love  each 
other  render  without  calling  it  service.  "Lovestthou 

27 


316  THE  ADVENT. 

me  ?  then  feed  my  sheep ; "  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  have 
done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  have  done  it 
unto  me."  There  is  a  cross  to  be  taken  up.  There 
are  the  hungry,  the  sick,  the  ignorant,  bondmen  and 
prisoners,  all  around  you.  In  them  the  Lord  makes  a 
new  advent  to  your  door  and  your  heart,  every  winter, 
every  week.  For  the  illiterate  and  the  educated  alike 
there  is  always  a  field  for  good  Samaritanism :  some 
body  lying  half-dead  by  the  roadside.  Christ  will 
not  be  received  by  society,  by  governments,  by  us,  till 
everybody  within  our  reach  is  made,  somehow,  better  by 
our  faith  in  the  Saviour  of  us  all. 

III.  After  the  Coming  and  the  Reception,  is  the 
Blessing.  "  To  as  many  as  received  him,  to  them  gave 
he  power,"  and  gives  he  power,  "  to  become  the  sons  of 
God."  That  is  the  sublime  promise :  have  we  ever 
thought,  deeply,  how  much  it  means?  Servants  we 
were  before,  creatures  of  God,  and,  in  the  sense  of 
owing  life  and  comfort  to  his  impartial  providence,  his 
children  ;  but  not  in  the  full  and  glorious  significance 
"  the  sons  of  God."  They  are  the  royal  line.  They 
are  the  heirs  of  immortality.  They  are  the  conquerors 
that  overcome  the  world,  and  the  sufferers  that  rejoice 
in  the  midst  of  affliction,  and  the  lowly  saints  that  come 
spotless  and  beautiful  out  of  their  great  tribulation. 
Persecution  perhaps  has  purified  them.  Ridicule  per 
haps  has  made  their  regeneration  perfect.  Temptation 
trampled  down  has  brought  angels  to  minister  to  them. 
Born  now,  not  of  the  will  of  the  flesh  nor  of  the  will  of 
man,  but  of  God,  their  immortal  seed  remaineth  in 
them.  They  are  the  multitude  whose  praise  no  unbe 
lieving  tongue  can  join,  whose  joy  no  arrogant  and 
unrepenting  heart  can  understand. 


THE  ADVENT.  317 

It  was  thus  that  the  moment  Christ  appeared,  he 
became  a  judgment,  or  a  judge.  There  was  no  visible 
bench,  no  formal  sentence.  He  was  even  anxious  to 
remove  the  impression  that  condemnation  was  his 
earthly  errand.  He  said,  "  I  came  not  to  judge  the 
world,  but  to  save  the  world."  Nevertheless  the  judg 
ment  comes,  and  by  a  law  inwrought  into  all  your 
souls.  No  one  of  you  can  ever  be  as  if  Christ  had  not 
appeared  on  the  earth.  To  hear  the  name  of  Christ 
alters  the  relations  of  every  human  being  to  the  highest 
facts,  to  God,  to  eternity.  It  was  not  so  much  any  spe 
cial  saying ;  it  was  his  character,  his  very  nature,  that 
was  judicial.  As  soon  as  he  was  manifest,  the  whole 
world  of  men  about  him  fell  apart,  and  souls  took  their 
places  on  the  right  hand  and  the  left.  It  was  as  if  that 
divine  presence  located  instantly  every  human  life  on 
earth.  And  so  he  added :  "  Though  I  came  not  into 
the  world  to  judge  it,  though  that  is  not  my  special 
mission  here  in  the  body,  but  to  manifest  God  to  you, 
yet  afterwards,  in  the  world  to  come,  and  in  conse 
quence  of  that  manifestation,  judgment  will  come,  sol 
emn,  awful,  inevitable,  sudden  as  a  thief  in  the  night. 
The  word  that  I  speak  unto  you,  that  shall  judge  you." 

The  question,  then,  for  the  individual  is  this  :  Do  we 
see  Christ  ?  Do  we  recognize  and  own  our  Lord  ? 
Whether  he  has  come,  where  he  is,  whether  he  can 
be  found,  is  riot  the  matter  we  have  to  consider ;  nor 
whether  we  belong  to  him.  He  has  come :  he  lives  : 
he  is  visible  to  the  eyes  of  faith :  his  life  goes  forth  into 
the  race  forever,  flowing  into  all  hearts  that  will  open 
to  receive  it,  making  them  sons  and  kings  and  priests 
unto  God. 

"  He  came  to  his  own,  and  his  own  received  him 


318  THE  ADVENT. 

not."  Can  we  let  the  passage  go  without  a  penitent 
conviction  ?  See  how  pathos  and  rebuke  are  mingled 
in  it !  The  sentence  of  a  heavier  condemnation  never 
was  written.  Severity  never  spoke  in  a  tenderer  com 
passion.  It  is  not  weak  complaint.  It  is  not  bitter 
sarcasm.  It  is  not  sentimentalism  bewailing  its  own 
impotence.  It  is  not  tyranny  exulting  over  its  victim, 
and  saying,  "  You  would  not  give  me  your  heart,  and 
so  I  rejoice  to  see  your  heart  crushed."  It  is  another 
spirit,  and  has  another  sound.  "  He  came  to  his  own, 
and  his  own  received  him  not."  It  is  the  sadness  of 
parental  affection  repulsed.  It  is  the  sorrow  of  a  heart 
that  bleeds,  not  for  itself,  but  for  children  lost,  and 
knowing  the  misery  before  them  as  the  children  them 
selves  cannot  know  it.  It  is  one  audible  note  of  the 
unutterable  pity  of  God  for  ungrateful  souls. 

And  who  are  they  ?  Men  of  the  past  only  ?  Peas 
ants  and  Pharisees  of  Palestine  only  ?  Students  in  the 
schools  of  the  Scribes,  and  the  Scribes  that  taught 
Hebrew  learning  only  ?  Answer  for  yourselves.  In  a 
day  that  is  coming,  we  must  all  answer  for  ourselves. 
Who  are  God's  ungrateful  children  ?  "  Last  of  all  he 
sent  his  Son,"  saying,  They  have  slighted  my  common 
mercies ;  they  have  ridiculed  or  criticised  my  mortal 
messengers :  I  gave  them  food  from  Heaven  and  fruit 
ful  seasons,  and  they  feasted  and  drank  and  were  mer 
ry  and  profane,  and  forgot  me :  I  gave  them  friends, 
and  they  tempted  them,  misled  them,  dragged  them 
down  to  their  own  level  of  denial,  vanity,  selfishness,  and 
shame :  they  stoned  my  prophets  :  but  "  they  will  rev 
erence  my  Son."  "  He  came  to  his  own ;  they  re 
ceived  him  not." 

As  was  said  at  the  beginning,  it  is  the  language  of 


THE   ADVENT.  319 

narrative.  But  in  what  we  have  to  do  with  the  Eternal 
One,  to  whom  there  is  no  yesterday  and  no  to-morrow, 
nothing  old  and  nothing  new,  the  past  brings  no 
excuses  for  the  present.  Time  does  not  alter  truth. 
There  is  no  partiality  for  ages,  nations,  or  persons.  As 
John  writes,  there  was  an  advent  and  a  rejection :  a 
bodily  advent,  a  bodily  crucifixion  :  the  image  and  outer 
form  of  the  Word  that  was  from  the  beginning,  the 
ever-living  Emmanuel,  the  Christ  that  comes  to-day. 
If  he  is  rejected  to-day,  it  is  by  the  pride  and  fashion 
and  self-indulgence  of  to-day.  It  is  our  compromising 
consciences,  it  is  our  well-dressed  sensuality,  it  is  our 
commercial  cunning,  it  is  our  literary  conceit,  it  is  our 
making  merchandise  of  men  and  of  men's  virtue,  our 
covering  up  cruelty,  and  calling  it  patriotism ;  dishon 
esty,  and  calling  it  regular  trade  ;  hollowness  and  mu 
tual  flattery,  and  calling  it  good  society  ;  prayerless  self- 
idolatry,  and  calling  it  a  rational  religion ;  — it  is  these 
things  that  prepare  and  build  his  cross,  and  crucify  him 
afresh. 

How  to  receive  the  Son  of  God :  they  that,  in  any 
sense,  believe  on  his  name  will  seek  earnestly  the  full 
answer  to  that  question.  They  will  seek  it  through  the 
giving  up  of  the  dearest  preference  that  hurts  the  sim 
plicity  and  humility  of  their  faith.  They  will  seek  it  in 
the  New  Testament,  in  Christian  instruction,  in  prayer, 
in  doing  every  hour  all  of  God's  will  they  know,  in 
counting  belief,  not  doubt,  the  glory  and  power  and  joy 
of  man.  Strong  and  ample  minds  will  reverently 
bring  their  strength  and  amplitude,  a  free  and  noble 
offering  to  their  Saviour's  cause,  yet  not  thinking  it 
much  to  give  Him  who,  knowing  all  that  is  in  men,  hav 
ing  all  the  science  they  are  striving  after,  the  wisdom  of 

27* 


320  THE   ADVENT. 

which  their  learning  is  but  a  broken  alphabet,  the  Master 
of  that  world  of  Nature  whose  margin  they  are  holding 
up  dim  lamps  to  explore,  and  commanding,  that  spark 
of  life  at  whose  mysterious,  silent  secret,  all  their 
knowledge  of  phenomena  stops  short,  and  is  dumb,  — 
not  much  to  give  Him  who,  having  power  and  honor 
like  this,  yet  gave  his  own  mortal  life  for  them.  The 
young  will  bring  the  freshness  and  dew  of  their  youth. 
Life  and  lips  will  not  give  too  much  emphasis  to  that 
good  confession.  No  energy  of  health,  no  affection  of 
the  heart,  will  be  willingly  excused. 

And  if  you  have  sought  elsewhere,  but  find  some 
thing  lacking  yet,  then  candidly  and  cordially  consider 
whether  some  further  help  may  not  possibly  be  held 
waiting  for  you,  where  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
stronger  minds  and  humbler  hearts  than  any  here  have 
found  it,  at  the  foot  of  his  cross,  in  the  communion  of 
his  body  and  his  blood,  the  sacraments  of  his  presence, 
the  memorials  that  he  has  come,  the  symbols  of  his  sac 
rifice,  the  images  of  his  bread  of  Truth,  which  whoso 
eateth  never  hungers,  and  of  his  spirit  of  Life  which 
whoso  drinketh  never  thirsts. 


SEKMON    XVIII. 

CHRIST   OUR  PROPHET,  PRIEST,  AND   KING* 

THIS   IS    OF   A    TRUTH    THAT    PROPHET    THAT    SHOULD    COME  INTO 

THE    WORLD.  —  John  vi.  14. 
THAT    HE    MIGHT  BE  A  MERCIFUL  AND  FAITHFUL  HIGH-PRIEST  IN 

THINGS    PERTAINING    TO    GOD,  TO   MAKE   RECONCILIATION   FOR 

THE    SINS  OF    THE  PEOPLE.  —  Hebrews  ii.  1 7. 
THEN    PILATE    SAID,  ART  THOU  THE  KING  OF  THE    JEWS  ?      JESUS 

ANSWERED,    MY     KINGDOM     IS    NOT    OF     THIS     WORLD.— John 

xviii.  33,  36. 

THE  subject  is  so  distinctly  threefold  that  it  may  be 
properly  introduced  with  these  three  sentences  of  Scrip 
ture.  Jesus  Christ  is  presented  by  them  in  three  offi 
ces,  different  in  kind,  but  neither  of  them  inconsistent 
with  the  other  two,  and  all  of  them  together  serving  to 
manifest  the  completeness  of  his  Messiahship,  or  his 
character  as  the  spiritual  Guide,  the  propitiatory  Sav 
iour,  and  the  reigning  Lord  of  men. 


*  This  sermon  was  first  preached  in  an  extemporaneous  form,  Sunday 
before  Easter,  (April  17,)  1859.  It  was  written  out  and  repeated  else 
where,  May  1.  Early  in  that  montti  an  excellent  article  on  the  same 
subject,  the  authorship  of  which  I  do  not  know,  but  an  article  entirely 
independent  of  this  discourse,  and  very  likely  in  type  when  this  was  first 
delivered,  appeared  in  the  "  American  Theological  Review."  The  lines 
at  the  end,  and  one  sentence  beside,  are  now  borrowed  from  that  paper. 


322  CHRIST  OUE  PROPHET,   PRIEST,   AND   KING. 

Each  of  the  statements  stands  for  a  class,  with  many 
other  examples  to  be  found  in  the  Bible.  Within  each 
class  the  forms  of  expression  vary,  following  the  free 
dom  of  individual  constitution  and  culture  in  the  writ 
ers  and  speakers,  or  else  suited  to  the  special  object, 
the  argumentative  connection,  or  the  moral  tempera 
ture  and  coloring,  of  the  passage.  But  the  agreement 
between  them  is  substantial.  They  are  all  grounded  in 
one  absolute  reality  belonging  to  the  Saviour's  nature 
and  ministry. 

Thus  there  is  one  large  class  of  declarations  which 
place  him  before  us  as  a  prophet.  In  the  Biblical  sense, 
the  prophet  is  a  teacher.  Prediction  is  one  part  of  his 
office,  but  only  one.  As  being  the  most  surprising  to 
common  minds,  it  gives  a  name  to  the  whole.  But 
it  is  not  the  whole.  The  prophet  predicts  by  virtue 
of  that  larger  vision,  or  insight,  which  is  a  deep 
and  general  endowment  of  the  prophetic  soul,  ena 
bling  him  to  look  both  before  and  after,  over  and 
beneath,  inside  and  throughout  the  matter  prophesied 
upon.  He  is  related  not  so  much  to  time  or  times, 
as  to  the  eternal  truth  of  God  which  is  beyond  time, 
and  the  same  in  all  times,  unchanged  amidst  the 
changeable.  Hence  his  power  of  penetrating  to  the 
heart  of  a  matter,  reading  its  secret  laws,  and  by 
that  means  knowing  how  it  will  act  and  come  out 
in  the  future  ;  a  divine  gift,  an  inspiration.  He  fore 
tells  to  other  men  because  he  sees  deeper  than  other 
men.  He  sees  from  the  centre,  and  so  takes  in  conse 
quences  and  relations  by  detail  in  their  just  place,  and 
their  interior  or  heavenly  order.  Accordingly,  the  old 
Hebrew  prophets  were  a  race  reformatory  and  agitat 
ing.  They  were  far-sighted  because  they  were  deep- 


CHRIST   OUR  PROPHET,   PRIEST,   AND   KING.  323 

sighted.  One  of  their  names  signifies  this  :  Seers.  By 
the  same  piercing  wisdom  they  knew  at  once  how  men 
would  act,  and  how  they  ought  to  act,  and  then  what 
would  be  the  consequences  of  their  acting.  This  they 
stood  up  and  told  aloud.  It  demanded  courage,  as  it 
always  does.  It  made  them  the  heroes  of  their  age. 
They  rebuked  kings  and  people.  They  called  the 
national  customs  and  institutions  to  judgment.  They 
not  only  knew  the  lower  and  craftier  elements  of 
human  nature,  which  is  the  knowledge  of  human 
nature  possessed  by  what  are  called  "  men  of  the 
world,"  but  the  loftier  and  more  disinterested  elements 
just  as  well.  Acquainted  with  God,  and  gifted  with 
internal  admissions  of  his  counsel,  they  could  discern 
what  retributions  would  come  upon  guilt,  and  what 
blessings  upon  the  righteous.  The  report  of  what  they 
saw  was  their  message,  —  now  terrible,  then  consola 
tory.  Brave  by  their  conscious  nearness  to  God,  and 
earnest  because  walking  in  his  light,  they  kept  nothing 
back  shown  them  in  the  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord."  Mere 
speech  of  this  sort  is  heroic  and  sublime.  What  we 
call  action  is  for  others.  Yet  this  is  the  soul's  action. 
The  organizing  part  of  a  reform  may  belong  elsewhere. 
In  the  case  of  Moses,  David,  Samuel,  and  Gideon,  the 
two  were  united :  they  were  the  prophets,  both  of  legis 
lation  and  empire.  But  Elijah,  Miriam,  Isaiah,  Malachi, 
and  many  more  only  spoke ;  they  roused  and  directed 
the  active  force  of  others ;  and  thus,  intermediately, 
they  made  revolutions  boil  and  commonwealths  grow. 

Besides  this,  there  may  be  other  and  different  gifts  of 
prophecy.  But  in  the  largest  sense  it  is  the  communi 
cation  of  religious  wisdom.  And  this,  everywhere 
throughout  the  New  Testament,  Christ  is  exhibited  to 


324  CHRIST  OUR  PROPHET,   PRIEST,   AND   KING. 

us  as  doing.  His  earthly  ministry  was  greatly  occu 
pied  with  revelations  of  truth  and  expositions  of  duty ; 
with  openings  of  the  secrets  of  Heaven  and  earth; 
with  showing  men  their  sins,  and  the  way  out  of  them ; 
the  possibilities  of  their  nature,  and  the  abuse  of  it ;  the 
judgment  and  the  life  to  come.  No  reader  of  the  New 
Testament  need  be  told  that  the  four  Gospels  are  in 
great  part  records  of  these  teachings  or  prophecies  of 
Jesus.  He  knew  all  that  was  in  man ;  and  he  came 
forth  from  God.  This  made  him,  not  only  one  of  the 
prophets,  but  that  one  Greatest  of  prophets  that  should 
come.  The  long  line  of  ancient  seers,  whose  highest 
errand  it  was  to  prepare  the  way  for  him,  whose  most 
glorious  predictions  foretold  him,  whose  longing  and 
aspiring  souls  had  it  for  their  grandest  joy  that  they 
saw  his  day,  culminated  at  last  in  his  supreme  and 
complete  person, — the  Light  of  the  World.  And 
accordingly  his  teachings,  or  prophesyings,  had  power 
and  created  effects,  with  which  no  others  can  bear  any 
comparison.  They  were  the  words  of  God. 

In  another  class  of  passages  Christ  is  represented  as  a 
priest ;  indeed  as  the  great  High-Priest  of  the  universe, 
as  much  above  any  mortal  priesthood  in  power  and  dig 
nity,  as  his  nature  transcends  mortal  limitations. 

This  name  points  us  to  a  distinct  office,  and  is  tracea 
ble  to  a  distinct  fact.  The  prophet,  we  saw,  communi 
cates  divine  wisdom  to  men.  The  priest  makes  an  offer 
ing  for  their  sins.  The  prophet  would  enlighten  and 
admonish  men,  to  prevent  their  falling  into  trans 
gression.  The  priest  would  reconcile  and  restore  them 
after  they  have  fallen  into  it.  The  prophet  has  to  meet 
the  want  of  ignorance  ;  the  priest,  of  repentance :  both 
equally  real. 


CHRIST    OUR   PROPHET,   PRIEST,   AND   KING.  325 

The  two  are  found  standing  side  by  side  through  all 
the  Biblical  periods.  When  religion  became  instituted 
in  the  Hebrew  commonwealth,  and  entered  into  the 
national  organization,  or  rather  became  its  theocratic 
law,  the  two  lines  appeared  in  official  representatives,  — 
Moses  rising  as  the  head  of  prophets,  and  Aaron  of  priests. 
These  were  not  arbitrary  arrangements,  but  rooted  in  the 
necessities  of  history  and  the  soul.  And  so  things  con 
tinued,  till  the  external  priesthood  disappeared,  being  at 
once  spiritually  superseded  and  historically  fulfilled  by 
the  one  offering  of  the  Kedeemer :  "  who  needeth  not 
daily,  as  those  high-priests,  to  offer  up  sacrifice,  for  this  he 
did  once  when  he  offered  up  himself; "  "  who  is  made 
priest,  not  after  the  law  of  a  carnal  commandment,  but 
after  the  power  of  an  endless  life  ; "  who,  "  not  by  the 
blood  of  goats  and  of  calves,  but  by  his  own  blood,  hath 
obtained  eternal  redemption  for  us  ;  "  and  who  hath,  not 
every  year,  but  "  once,"  appeared  "  to  put  away  sin  by 
the  sacrifice  of  himself."  Says  John,  "  Jesus  Christ  the 
Righteous  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not  for 
ours  only,  but  also  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world." 

"By  the  sacrifice  of  himself:  "  this  brings  into  view 
another  part  of  the  truth  ;  that  as  all  the  old  sacerdotal 
apparatus  was  to  be  now  taken  up  and  borne  away,  hav 
ing  its  types,  shadows,  and  significances  realized  in  the 
Saviour,  so  under  the  general  term  "  priest,"  in  the 
evangelical  usage,  are  included  the  several  portions  of 
the  priestly  work.  Thus  the  New  Testament  abounds 
in  the  application  of  all  manner  of  sacerdotal  imagery 
to  Christ.  He  makes  the  offering,  and  he  is  the  offer 
ing  itself.  He  is  greeted  on  his  first  manifestation  as 
the  "  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the 
world."  From  the  first,  his  suffering  and  death,  as  the 


326  CHRIST   OUR  PROPHET,   PRIEST,   AND   KING. 

grand  necessity  of  salvation,  are  foreshadowed  to  his 
followers,  as  they  are  able  to  bear  it,  in  mysterious  inti 
mations.  They  form  the  clearer  subject  of  the  high  and 
awful  converse  amidst  the  splendors  of  the  Mount  of 
Transfiguration.  Every  thorough  reader  feels  that  the 
account  of  them  by  the  Evangelists  is  the  central  and 
vital  thing,  the  heart  of  the  Gospel  record.  Scarcely  a 
page  of  the  New  Testament  expressing  the  Christian 
consciousness  of  the  Apostolic  Church,  and  dealing  with 
events  coming  after  the  crucifixion,  fails  to  set  them 
forth  in  their  sacrificial  character,  and  under  an  array 
of  sacerdotal  symbols.  The  Apostles  preached  it,  wrote 
it,  reasoned  it,  exulted  in  it,  put  it  into  their  ascrip 
tions  and  thanksgivings.  It  was  the  fire  and  ecstasy  of 
their  apostleship.  Every  place  and  utensil  of  the  old 
altar  service  came  in  to  help  the  redemptive  impression. 
All  that  long,  wonderful,  providential  Hebrew  economy 
had  prepared  the  moulds  of  thought  and  images  of 
speech  which  are  now  taken  up,  spiritualized,  and  filled 
out.  And  the  last  voices  we  hear,  as  the  sublime  story 
of  Revelation  ends,  and  the  apocalyptic  visions  of  ages 
sweep  away  before  us,  are  the  voices  of  the  mighty  mul 
titude,  saying,  "  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain  to 
receive  power,  and  riches,  and  wisdom,  and  strength, 
and  honor,  and  glory,  and  blessing." 

In  still  another  class  of  descriptions  our  Saviour  is 
represented  in  royalty.  A  kingship  pertains  to  him. 
He  is  the  Ruler  of  an  empire,  the  Leader  of  his  people, 
a  Prince  of  life  and  peace,  the  Captain  of  salvation,  the 
Head  of  the  tribes  of  the  earth.  In  some  rude  and 
dim  way  all  prophecy  saw  him  in  this  imperial  suprem 
acy.  That  conception  was  local  and  national,  and 
Christ  himself  had  to  expand  and  correct  it  by  show- 


CHRIST  OUE  PROPHET,  PRIEST,  AND   KING.  327 

ing  that  his  kingdom  is  not  in  the  geography  or  the 
blood  of  Judaism,  but  in  all  the  believing  and  loving 
hearts  of  men.  Still,  the  idea  is  never  abrogated  nor 
forbidden.  It  is  repeated  rather,  and  certified.  *  So 
before  Pilate:  "Art  thou  a  king,  then?"  Jesus, an 
swered,  assenting,  "  Thou  sayest  that  I  am  a  king !  " 
But  "  my  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,"  "  not  from 
hence."  His  apostles  are  always  ascribing  to  him,  in 
the  abundance  of  their  veneration  and  their  trust,  royal 
honors.  They  behold  him  "  far  above  all  principalities 
and  powers,"  and  "  on  his  head  many  crowns."  The 
truth  which  all  these  civic  symbols  only  feebly  shadow 
forth  is  the  truth  of  his  mighty  protection,  his  magisterial 
elevation,  and  his  personal  guardianship  over  the  spirit 
ual  organization  of  his  Church.  He  was  to  be,  as  he  is, 
the  Lawgiver  to  the  Society  of  Christendom,  every 
where  and  forever,  in  his  personal  presence  and  in  the 
principles  that  must  govern  the  social  progress  and 
make  man  the  brother  of  man. 

From  this  glance  at  the  positive  representations 
of  Christ's  character  let  us  turn  back  to  ourselves. 
What  can  give  the  truths  of  religion  a  heartier 
welcome,  than  to  find  that  they  meet  and  satisfy 
wants  that  are  waiting  and  perhaps  aching  in  our 
own  souls?  Of  the  two  indispensable  methods  of  au 
thenticating  a  revelation,  —  that  which  starts  from  ex 
ternal  authority,  and  that  which  starts  from  these  inner 
cravings  that  revelation  supplies,  —  this  latter  is  apt  to 
seem  the  most  natural.  Only  we  are  not  to  take  our 
individual  sense  of  need  as  measuring  the  real  needs 
of  mankind ;  and  not  to  forget  that  many  sacred 
wants  of  which  we  have  not  yet  ourselves  become  con 
scious  may  begin  to  burn  and  cry  within  us,  under 

28 


328  CHRIST   OUR   PROPHET,   PRIEST,   AND   KING. 

some  new  experience  yet  to  come.  So  that  we  cannot 
limit  or  deny,  with  respect  to  what  lies  beyond  our 
wants  ;  while  yet  in  what  really  meets  and  fills  them  no 
other  testimony  is  so  valid. 

The  three  several  characters  or  offices  of  Christ 
already  named  have  in  them,  we  shall  find,  just  this 
interior  testimony :  they  are  suited  to  deep,  strong 
needs  that  spring  up  sooner  or  later  in  the  sincere 
heart  and  earnest  life  of  men.  And  there  they  offer 
their  convincing  proofs  that  he  is  what  the  Bible  rep 
resents  him,  —  the  perfect  Master  of  humanity,  the 
Saviour  of  the  soul,  and  Lord  of  the  race. 

Beyond  question,  one  of  our  great,  universal  relig 
ious  wants  is  knowledge  of  the  truth.  The  moment  we 
wake  into  life,  or  into  the  consciousness  of  life,  the 
moment  we  begin  to  see  what  we  are,  and  where  we 
are,  and  what  is  given  us  to  do,  and  what  is  put  upon 
us  to  bear,  then  the  souls  within  us  begin  to  beg  for 
light.  Just  as  the  intellect  hungers  for  acquaintance 
with  its  own  fields  of  action  and  laws  of  motion,  and 
goes  for  that  to  its  teachers,  —  to  the  prophets  of  sci 
ence,  and  the  prophets  of  art,  and  the  prophets  of  soci 
ety,  who  read  nature  deeply,  and  by  their  insight  unfold 
her  secrets,  prognosticate  her  activities,  or  imitate  her 
forms,  —  so  the  spiritual  nature  longs  for  its  own  illu 
mination, —  light  upon  itself,  its  path,  its  origin,  its 
duty,  its  hereafter,  its  Maker.  It  says  to  whatever 
has  God's  wisdom  in  it,  Prophesy  to  me !  Darkness 
settles  down  on  many  questions  ;  mysteries  brood  over 
each  deeper  sorrow  of  our  life  ;  we  cannot  wave  them 
away  with  our  hand  nor  scatter  them  with  our  breath. 
Veils  hang  across  the  path  before  us,  so  impalpable  that 
our  blind  gropings  cannot  lift  them.  And  as  the  things 


CHRIST    OUR   PROPHET,   PRIEST,   AND   KING.  329 

we  wish  to  know  lie  beyond  this  world,  or  can  only  be 
interpreted  from  beyond  it,  we  get  only  a  partial  satis 
faction  from  the  wisest  of  the  mortal  sages  and  all 
the  human  periods.  Hence  Christ  came  as  a  teacher. 
"  This  is  that  prophet  that  should  come  into  the  world." 
He  opened  his  lips,  we  are  told,  wherever  he  came,  and 
taught  the  people.  They  wondered  at  the  gracious 
words  which  proceeded  out  of  his  mouth.  Waysides 
and  hills  and  common  dwellings  were  the  simple  ap 
paratus  and  open  halls  of  his  lessons.  He  unveiled 
the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Men  wanted 
to  know  their  parentage,  and  he  taught  them  of  the 
Father  ;  their  duties  to  each  other,  and  he  told  them  by 
parables  and  precepts ;  their  destiny,  and  he  uncovered 
the  retributions  and  joys  of  their  immortality.  He 
laid  bare  the  profound  and  vital  meaning  of  all  man's 
feeling,  suffering,  longing;  of  regeneration,  and  prayer, 
and  charity  ;  of  spiritual  unity,  and  worship,  and  the 
resurrection ;  of  the  relation  of  the  spirit  to  the  letter, 
of  the  new  to  the  old ;  of  the  Father,  and  the  Son,  and 
the  Comforter  to  each  other.  Men  saw,  and  knew,  and 
felt  that  the  greatest  of  prophets  was  risen  up  among 
them. 

But,  as  religious  creatures,  we  have  another  want 
than  that  of  religious  knowledge,  or  of  the  impulse  that 
knowledge  gives.  Already  we  have  more  knowledge 
than  we  have  used.  Hence  this  new  want,  wakened 
by  a  reproachful,  insulted  conscience :  a  heart  peni 
tent,  convicted,  shamed.  How  will  a  republication  of 
legal  requirements  bring  peace,  when  the  misery  is  that 
we  have  broken  those  we  had,  and  so  have  found  out 
that  "  by  the  law  is  the  knowledge  of  sin  "  ? 

Exactly,  then,  our  second  want  is  deliverance  from 


330  CHRIST   OUR   PROPHET,   PRIEST,   AND   KING. 

our  evil,  including  both  forgiveness  for  the  past  and 
strength  now  ;  —  something  to 

"  Be  of  sin  the  double  cure,  — 
Cleanse  us  from  its  guilt  and  power." 

Manifestly  this  cannot  come  from  ourselves.  It  must 
come  from  Him  whom  our  ingratitude  has  offended ; 
from  the  Ruler  whom  our  selfish  wickedness  has 
wronged.  It  must  come  from  God. 

Look  closely  at  this  want :  for  it  is  that  vital  spot  in 
all  humanity  where  sorrow  is  most  keen,  and  where 
relief  is  most  joyful.  The  sure  result  of  evil  is  pain ; 
of  persistent  sin  is  death.  Hence  the  voluntary  sur 
render  to  pain,  pain  even  unto  the  body's  death,  is  felt, 
and  has  been  ever  felt,  to  be  the  natural  expression  of  a 
penitent  soul.  It  is  propitiation :  not  because  God 
takes  pleasure  in  his  children's  suffering,  but  because 
that  is  the  soul's  fitting  tribute  to  the  just  majesty  of 
goodness  and  the  holy  authority  of  Eight.  Government 
without  penalty  is  gone,  and  all  its  blessed  protections 
are  dissolved.  Hence  the  honest  heart  cries  out  in  its 
shame  and  fear,  "  Let  me  suffer  for  my  sin."  Suffer 
ing  for  it  there  must  be  somewhere ;  transgression  is  a 
costly  business  ;  so  it  must  always  be  and  always  look  ; 
right  must  stand  at  any  rate ;  law  must  be  sacred,  or 
all  is  gone ;  and  since  nothing  is  so  dear  as  life,  and 
blood  is  the  element  of  life,  life  itself  must  be  sur 
rendered,  and  "  without  the  shedding  of  blood  is  no 
remission." 

Take  the  next  step.  Just  because  this  life  is  so  dear, 
He  who  loves  us  infinitely,  and  to  whom  it  is  dearer  than 
to  us,  will  be  willing  to  lay  down  for  us  his  own.  He 
will  not  even  wait  for  our  consent ;  but  in  the  abun 
dance  of  that  unspeakable  compassion,  in  the  irresisti- 


331 

ble  freedom  of  that  goodness,  he  "will  do  it  beforehand, 
—  only  asking  of  us  that  we  will  believe  he  has  done  it, 
and,  accepting  our  pardon,  be  drawn  by  that  faith  into 
the  same  self-sacrificing  spirit.  Herein  is  love  indeed. 
Suffering  for  our  peace !  Sacrifice,  not  that  our  service 
may  profit  and  pay  him,  but  that  our  transgression  of  a 
Perfect  Law  may  be  pardoned,  and  the  noble  life  of  dis 
interested  goodness  may  be  begotten  in  ourselves.  Be 
fore,  we  had  seen  God'  as  Creator,  Providence,  Ruler, 
and  all  the  motives  to  obedience  furnished  by  those 
characters  had  been  offered,  and  had  failed.  His  ser 
vants,  the  prophets,  had  come,  and  come  in  vain.  But 
now  we  see  him  in  the  new,  more  wondrous,  and  more 
gracious  character  of  Sacrifice.  The  last  proof  of  ten 
derness  is  given.  Says  Robertson,  —  and  how  truly  !  — 
"  Is  not  the  mystic  yearning  of  love  expressed  in  words 
most  purely  thus,  c  Let  me  suffer  for  him '  ?  "  We  want 
to  feel  that  our  God  of  infinite  love  feels  that.  Calvary 
is  the  full  answer  to  that  want.  In  the  person  of  the 
Son  he  so  comes  down  among  us,  and  into  us,  as  to 
suffer  for  us.  We  have  a  High-priest  that  can  be 
touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities, — nay,  takes 
those  infirmities  upon  him,  bears  our  sicknesses,  is 
bruised  for  our  iniquities,  is  delivered  for  our  offences, 
dies  that  we  may  live.  All  the  priestly  offices  are  ful 
filled.  "  Herein  is  love ;  not  that  we  loved  God,  but 
that  God  loved  us,  and  sent  his  Son  to  be  the  propitia 
tion  for  our  sins."  The  atonement  by  Christ  becomes 
the  inmost  and  grandest  power  of  the  world.  It  is  the 
one  peculiar,  characteristic,  crowning,  glorious  truth  of 
the  Gospel. 

And  then  if  you  turn  from  what  it  does  for  us,  as  a 
redemption,  to  what   it    does  within  us,  as  an  inspi- 

28* 


332  CHRIST   OUR  PROPHET,   PRIEST,   AND  KING. 

ration,  the  fruit  of  it  is  not  less  divine.  For  it  appeals 
directly  to  what  is  noblest,  most  generous,  most  disin 
terested,  in  all  the  brave  affections  and  aspirations  of 
humanity.  It  rises  up  in  harmony  with,  and  sur 
mounts  with  its  grandeur,  all  the  heroic  and  martyr 
sacrifices  of  mankind.  Mechanical  and  mercantile  con 
ceptions  of  salvation  vanish  before  it.  Right  becomes 
more  venerable  ;  love,  more  lovely ;  charity,  more  beau 
tiful.  It  was  of  charity  that  the  Saviour  suffered.  His 
cross  teaches  us,  not  that  each  one  is  to  be  looking  out 
for  a  selfish  salvation,  but  that  self  is  to  be  forgotten  in 
hearty  consecration  to  him,  and  in  free  service  to  our 
brethren.  It  carries  us  clear  of  the  belittling  notions  of 
escaping  Hell  as  a  punishment  or  earning  Heaven  as  a 
reward.  It  makes  the  lofty  sentiment  of  gratitude  the 
mainspring  of  piety ;  faith,  the  pure  inspiration  of  right 
eousness  ;  love,  the  sacred  secret  of  beneficence.  We 
learn  from  the  Redeemer,  who  gave  himself  for  us,  to 
give  ourselves  for  one  another.  We  take  up  that  cross 
which  signifies  an  atoning  sacrifice,  a  voluntary,  vicari 
ous  humiliation,  a  making  of  no  reputation,  and  becom 
ing  poor,  a  taking  of  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  being 
made  an  offering  for  sin,  for  others'  sake.  Henceforth 
we  abhor  sin.  for  itself,  for  our  brethren's  sake,  for 
Christ's  sake,  and  not  merely  for  its  penal  consequences. 
We  love  goodness,  and  are  loyal  to  it  for  itself;  not 
merely  for  its  wages.  We  not  only  "  admire  philan 
thropy,"  but  we  "  love  men,"  as  those  for  whom  Christ 
has  been  willing  to  die.  We  cease  longing  for  rest,  and 
begin  to  have  joy  in  God,  in  the  "  spirit  of  liberty,"  and 
in  the  eternal  life  begun. 

This  is  what  is  meant  by  Christ  our  Priest.     This  is 
that  profound,  penitential,  sorrowing,  unutterable  want 


CHRIST   OUR   PROPHET,   PRIEST,   AND    KING.  333 

in  human  souls  which  the  Redeemer  meets,  and  which, 
because  he  meets  it,  makes  the  heart  that  is  thus  con 
sciously  set  at  liberty  leap  with  gratitude  and  gladness 
to  join  the  praises  which  give  blessing,  and  honor,  and 
glory  to  Christ.  It  will  not  be  for  any  of  us  to  say 
there  is  no  need  of  a  blessing  so  deep  and  a  joy  so  great. 
You  may  say  you  have  not  yet  felt  the  need  of  it ;  and 
that  —  0  pity  of  God  !  —  may  be  mournfully  true.  But 
close  by  you  is  a  heart  which  feels  that  beside  this  want 
and  its  bitterness  all  the  common  griefs  of  mortality  are 
trifles  of  the  air :  the  want  of  reconciliation  with  the 
Father  in  heaven  ;  the  want  of  an  assured  forgiveness  ; 
the  want  of  Christ  and  him  crucified.  Where  that  is  once 
stirred  and  alive,  —  and  the  first  object  of  the  New  Tes 
tament  is  to  stir  it  and  make  it  alive,  because  that  is  the 
only  way  to  peace  and  power,  —  there  you  find  a  heart 
that  only  one  word  of  earth  or  heaven  can  reach.  You 
may  tell  it  that  its  sorrow  is  all  needless  and  irrational ; 
that  all  we  have  to  do  in  this  world  is  "to  do  right,"  or 
as  near  it  as  we  can  ;  but  it  will  only  look  back  upon 
you  with  speechless  wonder.  Do  right  ?  What  if,  with 
the  strongest  of  apostles,  I  do  not  "  find  how  "to  do 
right  ?  What  if  the  right  seems  to  me  too  high  and 
holy  a  thing,  and  too  far  off,  that  I  should  do  it  of  my 
self?  What  if,  all  my  life  long,  by  doing  or  leaving 
undone,  I  have  come  all  too  terribly  short  even  of  the 
right  I  knew  ?  Then  let  me  have,  what  the  blessed, 
merciful  Gospel  gives  me,  a  Redeemer !  Let  me  rest 
my  heart  upon  the  cross  !  Take  not  away  my  Lord ! 

"  Rock  of  ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  thee  ! 
Let  the  water  and  the  blood 
From  thy  riven  side  which  flowed, 
Be  of  sin  the  double  cure, 
Cleanse  me  from  its  guilt  and  power ! 


334  CHRIST   OUR   PROPHET,   PRIEST. 

"  Not  the  labor  of  my  hands 
Can  fulfil  thy  Law's  demands ; 
Could  my  zeal  no  respite  know, 
Could  my  tears  forever  flow, 
All  for  sin  could  not  atone  : 
Thou  must  save,  and  thou  alone  ! " 

Another  real  want  of  men  whose  Christian  sensibility 
has  been  made  alive,  is  that  of  a  conscious  and  friendly 
and  loyal  relationship  to  the  Saviour  now.  If  those 
who  do  feel  and  utter  this  want  misinterpret  by  it  the 
feeling  of  some  others  who  have  no  such  want,  it  is 
very  evident  that  they  do  not  mistake  the  almost  uni 
versal  and  unbroken  testimony  of  the  Christian  world, 
declared  in  ten  thousand  trusting  and  supplicating  and 
thankful  voices  from  age  to  age.  We  look  to  a  Lord 
who  knows  his  own,  watches  and  remembers  them  from 
his  merciful  throne  in  the  heavens,  calls  them  by 
their  names  in  the  personal  faithfulness  of  his  affection, 
and  lends  them  secret  powers  from  his  kingly  fountain 
of  power.  The  mediation  did  not  end  with  the  sacrifice 
and  the  earthly  theophany.  It  is  a  living  Lord  that  we 
worship.  It  is  an  abiding  as  well  as  royal  Shepherd 
that  we  follow,  significantly  typified  in  the  shepherd 
king  of  old.  Again,  fulfilling  a  far  earlier  type,  he  is 
the  true  Melchisedek,  —  as  the  argument  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  so  beautifully  proves,  —  blending  the 
sacerdotal  and  the  regal  offices  together ;  Prince  while 
also  he  is  Priest.  Consult  the  inmost  faith  of  the  truly 
believing  heart,  which  has  once  given  all  to  Him  who 
gave  himself  for  us,  and  see  what  a  bleak  bereavement 
would  fall  like  midnight  upon  it,  if  you  were  to  sweep 
away  from  it  this  perpetual  privilege  of  confiding,  loyal, 
adoring  fellowship  with  its  ascended,  crowned,  and  yet 
ever  condescending  King. 

Observe  then,  also,  how  these  several  titles  of  majesty 


CHRIST   OUE  PROPHET,   PRIEST,   AND   KING.  335 

not  only  apply  separately,  to  affirm  the  cordial  ascrip 
tions  of  the  Church  to  the  Son  of  God,  but  how  they 
mutually  sustain  and  fill  out  one  another's  appropriate 
meaning.  We  need  the  Prophet,  to  give  us  the  knowl 
edge  and  arouse  in  us  the  feeling  of  what  religious 
duty  is.  We  need  the  Priest  of  Sacrifice,  to  restore  and 
reconcile  and  pardon  us  when  duty  has  been  lost.  We 
need,  too,  the  holy  and  governing  Head,  to  preside 
over  and  guide  and  intercede  for  and  quicken  us,  till 
we  come  into  the  assembly  of  the  Just,  the  Church  of 
the  First-born,  —  when  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are 
all  made  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord.  In  these  three 
celestial  characters  of  the  Son  we  find  the  manifesta 
tion  of  what  we  are  taught  to  believe  are  the  three 
great  attributes  of  God,  —  wisdom,  love,  power,  —  wis 
dom  in  the  Teacher,  love  in  the  Sacrifice,  power  in 
the  King.  To  the  end  of  days,  every  redeemed  soul 
confesses  to  the  Master,  "  My  faith  looks  up  to  thee  !  " 
Christ  gathers  a  community.  He  binds  together  a 
brotherhood.  He  is  the  "Prince  of  Peace," — a  peace 
that  he  has  made  through  the  blood  of  his  cross,  break 
ing  down  or  melting  away  the  "  walls  of  partition." 
Each  individual  believer  rejoices  in  the  social  consola 
tion.  Indeed,  every  one  of  the  three  offices,  with  the 
three  corresponding  dispositions  in  us,  —  docility  to  the 
Teacher,  faith  in  the  Propitiator,  loyalty  to  the  Ruler, 
—  becomes  a  theme  of  thanksgiving.  No  one  of  them 
depresses,  disempowers,  or  restrains  our  energies.  They 
all  uplift,  encourage,  and  liberate.  They  are  full  of 
animation,  promise,  gladness.  The  Teacher  enlightens ; 
and  what  more  glorious  or  gladdening  gift  than  light  ? 
The  living  Sacrifice  rolls  away  the  burdens  of  remorse, 
and  sets  us  in  a  world  where  love  is  seen  forever  victo- 


336  CHRIST   OUR   PROPHET,   PRIEST,   AND    KING. 

rious,  with  the  cross  for  its  sign.  The  "  Head  over  all 
things  to  his  Church  "  inspires  us  with  the  felicity  of  a 
Divine  friendship,  opens  to  us  the  inviting  doors  of  that 
kingdom  which  is  not  of  this  world,  —  embracing  earth 
and  heaven,  the  holy  life  here  and  the  holy  life  ever 
lasting. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  that,  from  the  beginning, 
these  great  names  have  been  chosen  by  the  highest 
souls  in  the  Church  and  the  deepest-sighted  believers, 
like  Chrysostom  and  Augustine  and  Aquinas,  like  Me- 
lancthon  and  Gerhard  and  Krummacher,  to  set  forth 
the  homage  due  to  the  Master.  Only  three  centuries 
of  Christian  history  had  passed,  when  Eusebius,  the 
early  historian,  spoke  of  it  as  the  prevailing  conception 
of  the  Messiah.  "High-priests,  kings,  and  prophets,"  he 
writes,  "  were  anointed  as  types,  so  that  they  all  had 
respect  to  the  true  Christ,  the  Logos  full  of  God,  who 
is  the  only  High-priest  of  the  whole,  the  only  King  of 
all  creation,  and  the  only  Arch-prophet  of  the  prophets 
of  the  Father." 

It  is  the  right  of  the  Church  to  celebrate  her  Head. 
Let  us  come  without  misgiving  or  miserable  reserva 
tions  to  our  privilege,  having  apostles  and  confessors 
and  the  holy  teachers  of  centuries,  and  the  heart  of 
Christendom,  to  join  us.  It  is  no  speculative  nor  barren 
praise.  No  words  nor  work  of  ours,  when  the  spiritual 
currents  that  flow  through  us  and  the  laws  of  divine 
impression  are  laid  open,  will  be  found  more  practical. 
Every  honest  tribute  to  Christ  quickens  that  life  within 
which  Christ  alone  kindles.  To  exalt  him  is  to  ennoble 
ourselves.  To  venerate  the  Prophet  is  to  open  the  mind 
to  his  wisdom.  To  thrill  with  faith  in  the  Heavenly 
Priest  is  to  yield  the  heart  to  the  power  of  his  love.  To 


337 

behold  the  King's  majesty  is  to  let  the  will  find  joy  in 
obedience.  All  life  will  be  simpler  for  this  reverence  ; 
the  world  more  beautiful ;  religion  more  real.  We 
shall  come  from  the  high  mount  of  communion  with 
Jesus  inspired  for  a  nobler  week-day  righteousness 
among  men. 

For,  finally,  we  are  not  to  forget  another  practical 
and  immediate  lesson.  In  such  differing  measure  as 
their  capacity  renders  possible,  all  disciples  are  to  bear 
their  own  faithful  and  cheerful  part  in  the  same  three 
offices  of  holy  influence  in  which  our  Saviour  has  now 
been  passing  before  us.  Whoever  lets  his  Christian 
light  shine  daily  before  men,  in  the  humility  and 
charity  and  beauty  of  holiness,  teaches  the  heavenly 
wisdom.  Whoever  surrenders  self  to  truth,  to  man 
kind,  to  Christ,  enters  into  the  grandeurs  of  disinter 
ested  sacrifice,  and,  with  the  Crucified,  dies  unto  the 
world.  And  we  know  that  whoever  shall  suffer  thus 
with  him  "  shall  reign  with  him."  In  these  immortal 
ways,  as  the  Spirit  signifies,  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
men  shall  "  prophesy,"  and  the  patient  servants  be 
made  "  kings  and  priests  unto  God." 

Unto  the  Saviour,  then,  glorious  Head  over  all  things 
to  his  Church,  and  blessed  Lord  of  each  disciple's  life, 
only  Name  under  heaven  given  among  men  whereby 
we  can  be  saved,  faith  shall  bring  us  with  unquestion 
ing  adoration. 

"  Live  in  me,  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King ! 
As  Prophet,  lead  me  in  thy  light ! 
As  Priest,  present  my  offering  ! 
Lead  and  restrain  me  by  thy  might, 
So  that,  as  King,  thou  mayst  fulfil 
In  me  thy  kingdom,  all  thy  will ! 
Live,  Christ,  live  thou  in  me  !  " 


SEEMON    XIX. 

THE   CROSS  A  BURDEN  OR  A  GLORY* 

AND  AS  THEY  CAME  OUT,  THEY  FOUND  A  MAN  OF  CYRENE, 
SIMON  BY  NAME  ;  HIM  THEY  COMPELLED  TO  BEAR  HIS  CROSS. 

—  Matthew  xxvii.  32. 

BUT  GOD  FORBID  THAT  I  SHOULD  GLORY,  SAVE  IN  THE  CROSS 

OF  OUR  LORD  JESUS  CHRIST.  —  Galatians  vi.  14. 

HERE  are  two  kinds  of  suffering :  two  ways  of  bear 
ing  the  cross.  "We  are  struck,  first  of  all,  with  the  con 
trast  between  the  positions  of  these  two  men,  the  effects 
they  have  wrought,  the  impressions  they  have  made, 
the  memories  they  have  left  in  the  world. 

One  of  them  is  a  mere  name  on  the  reader's  tongue  ; 
the  other  is  a  living  power  in  the  heart  of  Christendom. 
One  is  a  vague,  feeble,  uninspiring  form  ;  the  other  is  a 
clear,  radiant  person,  standing  erect  close  to  the  centre- 
point  of  the  world's  grandest  revolution,  and  moving 
distinct  and  strong  among  the  most  vivid  and  hal 
lowed  realities  of  history.  Why  this  difference  ? 

As  the  executioners,  the  paid  officers  of  the  govern 
ment,  and  the  willing  servants  of  the  priests,  after 
the  judicial  mockery  was  over,  led  the  Lord  of  Life 

*  Good  Friday,  1858. 


THE  CROSS  A  BURDEN  OR  A  GLORY.       339 

away  to  the  place  of  his  crucifixion,  they  found  their 
victim  physically  unable  to  bear  the  weight  of  the  wood 
whereon  he  was  to  be  nailed  and  to  die.  It  was  not 
unusual,  in  such  cases,  to  require  some  substitute  to 
take  up  and  carry  that  burden.  Simon  the  Cyrenian 
happened  to  be  by  the  way,  a  convenient  drudge  for 
the  cruel  purposes  of  the  men :  a  stranger,  a  mere 
looker-on  at  the  spectacle,  not  worse,  not  better,  so  far 
as  we  know,  than  the  crowd  that  usually  follows  a  pass 
ing  procession,  or  gazes  at  a  public  punishment.  It 
does  not  appear  that  any  sympathy  had  been  kindled 
between  him  and  the  sufferer  ;  that  he  had  any  glimpse 
of  the  meaning  of  the  Messiah  or  of  his  message  ;  that 
one  touch  of  spiritual  illumination  from  that  "  Light  of 
the  World  "  had  reached  him,  nor  that  one  thought  of 
the  glory  of  the  august  sacrifice  that  was  preparing 
made  the  cross  feel  lighter  to  him.  It  must  have 
been  heavy,  and  it  must  have  seemed  hard,  as  many 
crosses  seem.  As  far  as  appears,  he  was  the  reluctant, 
stolid  instrument  of  an  arbitrary  command,  compelled 
to  a  menial  service  by  an  insolent  and  overbearing  po 
lice.  So  Simon  bore  the  cross  of  Christ. 

Some  years  after,  —  but,  remember,  long  before  the 
cross  had  come  to  be  the  badge  of  honor  and  of  beauty 
it  is  now,  or  anything  but  a  mark  of  criminal  disgrace, 
as  the  gallows,  the  penitentiary,  and  the  pillory  are  to 
us,  —  while  the  Crucified  was  yet  a  name  of  general 
reproach,  ridiculed  in  courts,  despised  by  the  religious 
and  respectable,  scarcely  known  to  learning  and  fash 
ion,  —  to  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block,  and  to  the  Greeks 
foolishness,  —  Paul,  convert  and  apostle,  was  writing  to 
a  little  company  of  believers  he  had  gathered  at  Galatia 
in  that  outcast  name.  He,  too,  had  seen  Christ,  but 

29 


340       THE  CROSS  A  BURDEN  OR  A  GLORY. 

not  in  the  body  ;  had  come  after  him  in  another  sense ; 
had  gone  to  his  crucifixion  in  a  reverent,  tender,  sym 
pathizing  faith ;  had  bowed  his  whole  believing  spirit 
with  his  body  under  the  burden ;  had  been  hunted,  hated, 
impoverished,  stripped,  scourged,  imprisoned,  banished, 
for  that  Crucified  One's  sake.  It  was  not  compulsory 
with  him,  but  voluntary.  He  did  not  do  it  like  Simon, 
because  he  must,  save  as  the  necessity  lay  in  his  own 
willing  conviction,  the  free  choice  and  irrepressible  love 
of  his  heart.  So  Paul  bore  the  cross  of  Christ,  and 
he  said  of  it,  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory  in  any 
thing  but  that,  boast  of  anything  but  that  infamy,  count 
anything  gain  but  that  loss,  be  proud  of  anything  but 
that  humiliation ! 

To-day,  Simon  is  but  an  insignificant  and  buried  unit 
in  the  vanished  multitude  of  the  Past.  Paul  is  alive 
among  us ;  preached  and  preaching ;  converting  man 
kind  to  truth,  influencing  nations,  forming  the  ages,  a 
master-builder  still  in  the  Church. 

These  two  men  represent  two  different  attitudes  of 
the  soul  or  states  of  feeling,  —  neither  of  them  very 
uncommon,  —  before  the  divine  facts.  Corresponding 
to  them  are  two  ways  of  meeting  the  inevitable  disci 
pline  of  Providence,  —  two  ways  of  dealing  with  that 
deep  exercise  of  the  conscience  which  makes  the  cross 
necessary,  —  two  ways  of  interpreting  the  signification 
and  power  of  the  cross  itself,  the  Saviour's  suffering. 
Let  iis  take  each  in  its  order ;  for  there  is  a  natural 
order  among  them. 

I.  First,  there  is  the  constant,  ordinary  discipline  of 
human  life.  By  discipline  we  commonly  understand 
some  degree  of  pain,  because  we  have  all  found  out  that 
we  cannot  learn,  nor  grow,  nor  prevail,  without  that. 


THE  CROSS  A  BURDEN  OR  A  GLORY.       341 

There  must  be  some  restraining  of  desire ;  some  denial 
of  propensity ;  some  yoke  on  the  passions ;  some  sacri 
fice  of  the  less  for  the  greater,  of  the  present  for  the 
future,  of  pleasure  for  right,  of  inclination  for  duty. 
In  all  this  there  is  suffering.  Life,  whenever  it  is  ear 
nest,  contains  more  or  less  of  this  sacrificial  element. 
Owing  to  temperament,  to  external  influence,  to  inher 
ited  tendencies,  to  various  causes,  some  of  which  we  can 
explain  and  more  that  we  cannot  explain,  this  ingredi 
ent  of  sorrow  differs  in  amount,  differs  in  form.  The 
principal  fact  is  that  every  individual  experience  has, 
soon  or  late,  its  painful  side,  its  crucial  hours,  when 
there  is  darkness  over  all  the  land,  and  we  cry  out  to 
know  if  God  has  forsaken  us.  For  the  time,  longer  or 
shorter,  we  taste  only  the  bitter,  and  feel  only  the 
thorns.  The  separations  of  death,  the  distance  between 
our  aspiration  and  performance,  unsatisfied  ambition, 
laboring  year  after  year  in  vain,  affection  returned 
by  indifference,  the  symptoms  of  fatal  disease,  former 
energy  prostrate,  a  friend  alienated,  a  child  depraved, 
an  effort  to  do  good  construed  into  an  impertinence,  — 
unconquerable  obstacles  that  we  cannot  measure  and  can 
scarcely  speak  of,  heaped  up  against  our  best  designs, 
—  these  are  some  of  the  most  frequent  shapes  of  the 
misery  ;  but  no  list  is  full.  The  one  essential  thing  is 
that  the  will  is  crossed,  crucified.  Character  is  every 
where  put  into  this  school  of  suffering. 

Without  any  pretence  of  insight,  we  know,  for  we  are 
very  plainly  told  in  two  separate  volumes  —  the  volume 
of  past  experience  and  the  volume  of  the  Book  —  why 
this  is.  It  is  Paul's  old  warfare  of  the  law  of  the  flesh 
and  the  law  of  the  spirit.  It  is  the  conflict  of  two  neces 
sary  moral  opposites,  on  the  great  scale  of  humanity. 


842       THE  CROSS  A  BURDEN  OR  A  GLORY. 

There  is  a  battle  of  Good  and  Evil,  and  these  special 
miseries  are  the  bruises  of  the  blows  that  fill  the  air,  — 
sometimes  seeming  to  fall  at  random,  and  perplexing 
our  reason,  because  we  cannot  rise  to  such  height  of  vis 
ion  as  to  take  in  the  whole  field  at  once.  It  is  a  mixed 
engagement ;  we  are  socially  responsible ;  we  suffer  both 
with  and  for  one  another,  all  the  time.  Suffering  is  the 
tax  we  have  to  pay  for  the  privilege  of  being  free  to 
choose.  Only  this  is  but  half  the  account  of  the  matter ; 
and  we  are  hopelessly,  desperately  puzzled,  till  we  see 
running  through  all  this  sorrow,  working  freely  in  all  its 
various  griefs,  and  using  every  pain  for  a  means  of  purity, 
the  steady  wisdom  and  all-controlling  Love  of  God  our 
Father.  In  other  words,  sin  is  in  the  world,  and  death 
by  sin  Evil  has  but  one  source.  There  is  a  Law, 
which  is  Love.  The  commandment  is  holy,  just,  and 
good.  Evil  comes  of  the  chafing  of  our  disobedient, 
finite,  selfish  will  against  that  perfect  will  of  God.  But 
the  distribution  of  its  natural  pains  is  clearly  not  simply 
according  to  personal  deserving :  it  is  for  an  end  of  good 
thoroughly  foreseen  only  by  the  All-seeing.  We  are 
helpless  to  explain  our  cross ;  but  we  have  it  to  bear. 

Here  are  presented  those  two  sorts  of  moral  condi 
tion,  two  postures  of  the  soul,  indicated  in  the  two 
men  of  the  text.  One  takes  his  troubles  bitterly,  un 
willingly,  unthankfully.  He  dreads  them  when  he  sees 
them  coming.  He  runs  from  them  while  there  is  space 
to  run.  He  struggles  against  them  as  long  as  he  can. 
And  then,  as  their  fearful,  irresistible  step  presses  on 
him  and  overtakes  him,  he  is  borne  down.  He  is  their 
victim,  not  their  pupil.  They  conquer  him,  and  are  not 
conciliated  as  his  friends.  If  they  are  little  troubles, 
they  fret  his  temper  and  disfigure  his  dignity ;  he  com- 


THE   CROSS   A  BURDEN   OR  A   GLORY.  343 

plains  sentimentally  or  curses  profanely.  If  they  are 
larger,  he  only  yields  in  terror  or  sinks  in  stupor.  Be 
reavement  has  then  but  two  reliefs  :  either  he  must  be 
so  cool-blooded  that  his  affliction  is  really  tolerable,  or 
so  proud  that  he  is  ashamed  to  weep ;  these  failing,  self 
ish  affection  mourns  without  hope.  He  is  afraid  to  die, 
because  it  was  not  for  Christ  and  man  that  he  lived. 
He  hates  the  world  he  has  abused.  He  blames  the 
Providence  he  has  thwarted.  He  satirizes  the  life  he 
has  spoiled  and  emptied.  He  calls  it  poor,  a  mockery,  — 
calls  the  world  hollow,  men  hypocrites.  He  suffers ; 
no  doubt  of  that.  None  knows  it  better  than  he.  The 
sorrows  have  got  hold  upon  him,  and  he  aches  under 
their  hands.  But  there  is  no  faith ;  no  submission  ;  no 
stronger  heart,  nor  sweeter  patience,  nor  gentler  charity, 
nor  growing  hope.  He  suffers  because  he  cannot  help 
it ;  dull,  hard,  dark,  comfortless  pain.  "  Him  they 
compelled  to  bear  the  cross." 

The  other,  too,  suffers.  Agony  is  not  abolished  for 
him.  The  grand  laws  of  mortal  travail  are  not  revoked 
for  him.  The  nerves  of  believers  are  not  callous,  nor  the 
sensibilities  of  saints  deadened.  For  evils  in  them  and 
evils  around  them  they  suffer.  But  they  suffer  as 
Paul  suffered,  turning  tribulation  into  victory,  drawing 
peace  from  pain.  The  sorrow  laid  on  them  they  take  up 
so  cheerfully  that  it  loses  half  its  weight.  They  can 
put  off  the  body  without  alarm,  because  they  subdued 
it  long  ago  to  the  spirit.  '  They  can  be  disappointed  in 
their  plans,  because  the  Almighty  has  other  servants. 
They  can  say,  as  Dr.  Arnold  wrote  in  his  journal  late 
on  that  last  evening  of  his  life  while  yet  in  perfect  health, 
after  alluding  to  other  and  more  public  aspirations,  — 
aspirations  for  England  and  for  the  Church,  —  "  Above 

29* 


344       THE  CROSS  A  BURDEN  OR  A  GLORY. 

all,  let  me  mind  my  own  personal  work,  —  to  keep  my 
self  pure  and  zealous  and  believing,  laboring  to  do 
God's  will,  yet  not  anxious  that  it  should  be  done  by 
me  rather  than  by  others  if  God  disapproves  of  my 
doing  it."  They  can  endure  the  departure  of  trusted 
things  and  even  trusted  persons,  as  by  faith  seeing  the 
invisible  which  never  departs.  They  can  let  their  chil 
dren,  their  mothers,  the  most  beautiful  and  the  most  be 
loved  die,  not  unsorrowing,  but  consenting,  because  they 
know  that  their  Redeemer  liveth.  They  can  be  crucified 
unto  the  world,  because  the  world  is  already  crucified 
unto  them.  They  can  lift  their  cross  up,  and  glory  in  it. 

So  every  common  trouble  —  a  sickness  or  a  broken 
scheme,  a  bruised  heart  or  a  defeated  will —  comes  with 
a  cross  which  is  like  two  crosses  in  its  hands.  Feel  no 
God  to  be  there,  and  it-sorely  wears  you  down, —  down 
till  you  die  under  its  weight.  Take  it  up  in  Christ's 
name,  bear  it  for  his  sake,  and  it  is  light,  — lighter  than 
air.  It  is  a  "  changed  cross."  It  lifts  you  up  as  you 
bear  it.* 

II.  But  as  we  carry  our  search  inward  and  down 
ward,  we  reach  a  trouble  deeper,  darker,  than  any  of 
these  I  have  named.  If  we  really  feel  it  at  all,  we  feel 
that  no  other  sorrow  can  be  compared  with  it.  Till  we 
have  felt  it,  all  descriptions  of  it  by  others  must  sound 
extravagant,  austere,  unmeaning ;  but  when  it  has  once 
come  in  and  taken  hold  of  our  souls  then  we  say  no 
language,  no  penitent's  self-reproach,  no  prodigal's  cry 
of  unworthiness,  not  Augustine's  burning  confessions, 
not  the  hot  anguish  of  the  fifty-first  Psalm,  is  over 
wrought  or  too  earnest.  For  what  words  can  tell  too 

*  "  Si  crucem  libenter  portes,  te  portabit."  —  THOMAS  A  KEMPIS. 


THE  CROSS  A  BURDEN  OR  A  GLORY.       345 

strongly  the  wretchedness  of  feeling  self-condemned? 
My  friends,  that  is  an  actual  feeling.  That  is  one  of  the 
states  of  a  human  soul  like  yours  and  mine.  We  may 
be  awkward  and  faulty  in  our  attempts  to  define  it. 
We  may  put  the  wrong  name  to  it.  We  may  use  the 
words  of  systems,  or  of  creeds,  or  of  other  people,  when 
we  ought  to  take  the  first  plain  word  that  leaps  to  our 
lips ;  and  so  men  may  say,  That  is  not  a  true  image ; 
that  does  not  show  the  thing  as  it  is.  No  matter,  so 
you  only  know  the  thing.  We  are  not  thinking  about 
the  artist's  skill,  nor  about  words,  but  about  a  pressing, 
personal  fact.  It  is  a  fact ;  and  therefore  even  com 
mon  sense  will  accept  it.  It  is  a  state  where  men  are 
found ;  and  science,  which  has  to  consider  storms  as 
well  as  light,  pain  as  well  as  comfort,  must  look  at  it. 
It  is  an  experience  of  the  human  soul ;  and  therefore 
philosophy,  to  say  nothing  of  faith,  would  have  to  take 
it  into  her  studies.  But  all  these,  when  they  have  done 
their  best  upon  it,  will  be  glad  to  send  us  back  to  the 
New  Testament,  and  hand  the  problem  over  to  the 
Great  Reconciler.  Ah,  if  it  were  not  a  fact,  no  such 
Great  Reconciler  would  have  come.  There  would  have 
been  no  Good  Friday,  no  Gethsemane,  no  Calvary,  no 
Pascal  Sacrifice,  no  "  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world."  Nay,  there  would  have  been  no  Church, 
no  altar  of  communion,  no  anthem  of  affliction,  no 
wailing  Miserere,  such  as  to-day  prepares  our  adoration 
of  the  Redeemer.  SAVIOUR  would  be  a  word  without 
a  meaning.  There  would  be  no  cross  for  Simon  to 
bear ;  none  for  Paul  to  glory  in. 

This,  at  least,  we  know  :  when  that  hour  of  a  great 
conviction,  that  sense  of  a  new  and  awful  necessity,  has 
come,  it  finds  a  secret  voice  of  its  own,  broken  perhaps 


346       THE  CROSS  A  BURDEN  OR  A  GLORY. 

with  penitence,  incoherent  with  remorse,  humble  with 
shame  ;  but  the  same  voice  that  has  breathed  itself  into 
the  confessions  of  prostrate  congregations,  into  the  lita 
nies  of  the  kneeling  thousands  of  the  Church.  It  says, 
I  acknowledge  my  transgression,  and  my  sin  is  ever 
before  me.  Lo,  thou  art  my  Father,  and  yet  I  am  not 
thy  filial  child.  Thou  art  Love  itself,  and  I  have  not 
loved  thee  ;  Truth  itself,  and  I  have  not  been  true  to 
thee  ;  Purity  itself,  and  I  have  been  unclean,  —  unclean 
before  thee !  All  the  affection  of  mother  and  of  father, 
of  sisters  and  brothers,  of  friends  and  lovers,  gathered 
into  one  bright  and  beaming  sun  of  tender  and  unchang 
ing  sympathy,  would  be  only  a  shadow  of  thy  kindness, 
for  thy  nature  is  infinite,  and  all  that  nature  is  mercy ; 
yet  to  that  I  have  been  ungrateful,  and  against  that  have 
I  been  insensible.  Yerily,  against  thee,  thee  only  have  I 
sinned !  Thou  didst  shape  and  fashion  my  body,  and  in 
thy  book  all  my  members  were  written ;  yet  selfishness 
has  been  in  my  heart  and  reins,  in  my  blood  and  my 
bones,  in  my  nerves  and  my  motions.  I  am  "  shapen  in 
iniquity."  Thou  desirest  truth  in  the  inward  parts ; 
yet  inwardly  and  outwardly,  in  myself  and  in  society, 
in  my  business  with  the  world  and  in  my  bosom,  in 
tongue  and  deed,  how  often  have  I  been  false,  —  false 
to  the  best  I  knew,  false  to  duty,  false  to  thee  !  Nay, 
thou  didst  make  and  order  the  way  of  holiness  to  be  the 
way  of  safety  and  peace  and  joy  for  me  ;  and  not  even 
that  would  draw  and  keep  me.  Thou  didst  bid  me,  in 
eating  and  drinking,  and  in  whatsoever  I  should  do,  do 
all  for  the  glory  of  God ;  and  I  have  lived  for  myself,  for 
a  paltry  pleasure,  for  an  empty  admiration,  for  a  passing 
breath  of  fame.  Thou  didst  give  thy  dearly  beloved 
and  only  begotten  ;  and  practically  I  have  denied  him. 


THE   CROSS   A   BURDEN    OR   A   GLORY.  347 

He  came  down  to  the  earth,  and  I  would  not  let  him  lift 
me  to  heaven.  He  took  my  poor  nature  and  infirmities, 
and  was  tempted  with  me,  yet  I  would  not  become  a 
partaker  of  the  divine  nature  with  him.  He  groaned 
and  prayed  in  the  olive  shade,  and  did  sweat  great  drops 
of  blood,  and  died  for  me  ;  and  I  would  not  live  for  him. 
0  Lord,  most  merciful !  0  Saviour  and  Redeemer  most 
pitiful !  purge  me,  wash  me,  and  I  shall  be  clean  !  For 
give,  spare,  renew,  recover  me !  I  am  not  worthy  to 
be  called  thy  child !  My  God  !  my  God  ! 

Just  here,  then,  appear  to  us  again  the  two  aspects  of 
the  Cross.  Hard,  loveless,  unwilling,  drudging  duty: 
shall  that  be  our  way  ?  A  cross,  indeed,  but  not  Christ's 
cross.  "  Him  they  compelled  to  bear  the  cross."  All 
life  will  be  crucifixion,  and  all  our  consciences  will  be 
servile  Cyrenians.  It  will  be  law,  and  nothing  but  law. 
"We  shall  be  eye-servants,  not  loving  children.  Exist 
ence  will  be  a  task,  and  not  a  privilege ;  our  service  will 
answer  to  an  exacting  homily,  and  not  a  hymn  of  praise. 
We  shall  work  at  it,  or  grind  under  it,  in  bondage  to 
the  commandment,  not  in  the  cheerful  liberty  of  the 
sons  of  God  with  which  Christ  makes  his  people  free. 
Lingering  in  the  old  Judaism  and  its  legality,  keeping  a 
score  of  merits,  weighing  and  gauging  our  own  stock  of 
virtues,  bent  in  self-inspection  till  the  energies  are  crip 
pled  and  faith  consumptive,  we  shall  never  get  beyond 
"  Thou  shalt."  If  we  see  ourselves  as  we  are,  by  the 
law  itself,  we  shall  be  terrified,  and  work  only  from 
fear,  and  the  world  will  be  covered  with  gloom.  If  we 
natter  and  deceive  ourselves  that  we  are  as  good  as  we 
need  be,  we  shall  stand  still,  and  that  is  destruction. 
Our  God  will  not  be  a  Father,  but  a  Judge.  Christ,  in 
his  true  character,  as  a  disinterested,  life-giving  Pro- 


348       THE  CROSS  A  BURDEN  OR  A  GLORY. 

pitiator,  who  takes  the  soul  over  from  its  condemnation 
to  its  freedom  and  acceptance,  we  shall  not  know  at  all. 
Here  is  exactly  the  point  where  so  many  of  Paul's  argu 
ments,  utterly  unintelligible  without  this  key,  but  clear 
as  day  with  it,  converge,  and  write  their  conclusion  in 
letters  of  light.  "  By  the  deeds  of  the  law  shall  no  flesh 
be  justified,"  —  not  Jewish  law  only,  but  Divine  law 
everywhere,  anywhere,  in  Rome,  England,  America, 
simply  because  the  Divine  law  is  always  vastly  greater 
and  higher  than  human  performance,  and  so  always  a 
broken  law,  —  of  course  no  man  justified  by  its  deeds. 
Our  blessed  Eedeemer  has  taken  all  the  misery  and  suf 
fering  and  penalty  of  the  broken  law  upon  him,  and  sent 
the  believer  on  his  way  joyous,  unburdened,  free.  "  The 
law  made  nothing  perfect ;  "  it  only  told  what  the  perfect 
was,  —  did  not  inspire  the  motive,  the  love,  to  keep  it. 
If  kept  at  all,  as  law,  it  would  be  by  fear,  or  a  selfish 
seeking  for  safety  from  its  penalty,  not  by  self-forgetting 
loyalty.  "If  ye  are  led  by  the  Spirit,  ye  are 'not  under 
the  law,  but  under  grace."  Law  is  compulsory ;  grace 
is  free.  Law  is  obligatory ;  the  Gospel  is  attractive. 
Law  is  command  ;  the  covenant  in  Christ,  which  "  the 
law  cannot  disannul,"  is  promise.  Law  is  terrible  ;  the 
Spirit  is  animating,  —  pardon,  peace,  love,  joy,  gentle 
ness,  goodness,  faith. 

Yes  :  Law  alone  is  a  cross.  Here  stands  the  anxious 
conscience,  troubled,  discouraged,  looking  far  up  at  the 
blazing  standard,  the  commandment,  and  then  looking 
back  at  its  disordered  and  miserable  self ;  no  way  of 
bringing  the  two  together.  It  needs  a  Reconciler,  who 
shall  not  lower  the  law,  but  keep  it,  honor  it,  magnify 
it,  and  at  the  same  time  lift  up,  forgive,  reinvigorate 
man,  and  breathe  a  new  life  of  the  Holy  Spirit  into  him. 


THE  CROSS  A  BURDEN  OR  A  GLORY.      349 

It  needs  that  mediator;  another  cross,  not  Simon's 
cross  now,  but  Paul's.  Man  is  in  need,  -not  of  another 
commandment,  but  of  a  consistent  pardon  for  not  keep 
ing  and  of  a  new  affection  impelling  him  to  try  to  keep 
the  old  one.  By  the  law  was  the  knowledge  of  sin; 
what  he  wants  is  a  way,  a  deliverance,  a  justification. 
"  The  law  made  nothing  perfect,"  "  but  the  bringing  in 
of  a  better  hope  did." 

Do  we  then  make  duty  less  important,  less  sacred  ? 
Infinitely  more  important,  infinitely  more  sacred,  be 
cause  it  is  duty,  not  to  a  stern  judge,  but  to  a  Father  ; 
not  to  one  ready  to  condemn,  but  ready,  through  his 
own  gracious  atonement,  to  accept.  "  Do  we  make  void 
the  law  ?  Nay,  we  establish  the  law."  Law,  con 
science,  the  sense  of  duty,  did  great  things  for  us ;  it 
pointed  us  to  the  right,  it  showed  us  our  weakness ;  it 
disciplined  us,  and  made  us  ready  for  a  higher  and  a 
more  spiritual  relation.  "  The  law  was  our  schoolmaster 
to  lead  us  to  Christ,"  and  "  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law 
for  righteousness  to  every  one  that  has  this  faith."  Nor 
has  it  done  with  the  disciple  yet ;  only  since  Christ  has 
died,  it  is  transfigured  into  invitation,  become  "  spirit 
ual,"  "  good." 

The  believer  is  not  exempt  then  from  work,  nor  from 
pain.  He  works  with  tenfold  the  legalist's  earnestness  ; 
he  may  suffer  with  tenfold  the  moralist's  pain.  But  he 
longs  to  work,  and  he  is  willing  to  suffer,  in  the  joy  of 
his  thankful  faith.  Paul  bore  the  cross  no  less  than 
Simon  ;  and  it  was  a  cross  ;  no  easy  figure  nor  fanciful 
image  of  it.  Yet  it  was  a  cross  not  laid  on  reluctant 
shoulders.  He  took  it  up,  and  lo  !  it  grew  light  in  his 
hands.  He  welcomed  it,  and  it  glowed  with  lustre,  as 
if  it  were  framed  of  the  sunbeams  of  heaven.  He  em- 


350      THE  CKOSS  A  BURDEN  OB  A  GLORY. 

braced  it  in  the  arms  of  his  trust ;  and  then  he  could 
say,  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory  in  anything  but 
that! 

III.  Thus,  thirdly,  the  same  spiritual  contrast,  the 
same  principle  of  difference  between  compulsory  and  vol 
untary  service  opens  to  us  two  interpretations  of  the  suf 
fering  of  the  Saviour  himself.  Neither  the  cross  of 
Simon  nor  the  cross  of  Paul  was  both  literally  and  actu 
ally  the  cross  of  Christ.  Simon's  was  literally ;  the  same 
cross,  but  how  different  in  fact !  Paul's  was  not  literally ; 
but  iii  kind,  in  moral  sympathy,  in  religious  purpose,  in 
the  unity  of  faith,  only  not  in  degree,  as  the  disciple 
may  resemble  the  Master,  —  the  same.  We  pass  up 
now  above  them  both  to  the  one  cross  original,  supreme, 
all-sufficient,  on  which  were  laid  the  iniquities  of  us 
all,  by  which  the  world  was  redeemed,  on  which,  as  the 
Sufferer  himself  said,  even  as  Moses  lifted  up  the  ser 
pent  in  the  wilderness,  that  whosoever  looked  might  be 
healed,  the  Son  of  Man  was  lifted  up,  that  he  might 
draw  all  men  unto  himself. 

We  mistake  utterly  both  the  attraction  and  the  power 
of  that  sacrifice,  the  moment  we  regard  it  as  a  reluctant 
compliance  with  necessity.  Its  charm  was  that  it  was 
chosen.  Its  power  was  that  it  was  free.  "  No  man 
taketh  my  life  from  me  ;  I  lay  it  down  of  myself.  I 
have  power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it 
again  !  "  The  divine  dignity  of  those  words  !  as  divine 
as  the  mercy. 

Such,  in  kind,  observe,  is  the  wonderful  transforming 
energy  of  the  spirit,  of  the  soul,  of  its  affections,  its 
charity,  even  in  man.  Outward  things  are  pliant,  plas 
tic,  completely  subject  to  it.  The  plainest  face,  to  eyes 
that  love  really  looks  through,  has  a  kind  of  beauty  in 


THE   CROSS   A  BURDEN   OR  A   GLORY.  351 

it,  not  of  the  features.  A  child's  deformity  comes  to 
wear  a  grace  in  the  mother's  tender  beholding.  Prison 
walls  are  palaces  to  the  martyr  whose  heart  holds 
daily  court  there,  for  the  King  of  kings.  All  measure 
ments  are  reversed,  all  criticisms  are  reconsidered,  all 
blemishes  are  beautified,  when  this  transfiguring  light 
of  love  touches  them.  That  special  sign  of  debasement, 
of  mingled  servility  and  crime,  the  slave's  scourge,  the 
cross,  becomes  glorious  when  the  Son  of  God  takes  it 
up  ;  there  is  goodness  enough  in  him  to  exalt  it.  The 
pain  of  dying  was  joy  to  him,  because  the  compassion 
of  Heaven  flowed  down  through  the  pierced  and  bleeding 
body.  Then  was  the  Son  of  Man  glorified.  The  nails, 
and  the  thorns,  and  the  spear,  and  the  reed,  and  the 
rough  soldiers'  insulting  hands  were  honorable  to  him 
and  welcome,  because  they  only  signalized  that  sacrifice 
where  self  was  forever  crucified  for  love.  / 

Yes  ;  the  freeness  of  the  sacrifice  was  its  efficacy.  It 
was  no  device  of  perplexed  counsels,  no  expedient  for  an 
emergency,  no  escape  from  a  surprise.  If  we  make  it 
so  in  our  poor  systems,  we  put  a  compelled  cross  on  the 
Lord  of  all  our  liberty.  It  was  the  way  chosen  from 
the  beginning.  God  so  loved  the  world.  It  was  not 
the  offering  of  the  Father  alone,  nor  of  the  Son  alone, 
but  of  the  Divine  heart  of  God  in  them  both,  —  a  heart 
that  was  loving  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and 
finding  this  overwhelming  utterance  at  last.  There,  at 
Calvary,  was  set  up  the  one  immovable,  unfailing, 
everlasting  barrier  against  the  tyranny  and  triumph  of 
Evil.  There  the  waves  of  hatred,  oppression,  envy, 
unbelief,  scorn,  sensuality,  and  every  sin,  break  their 
force,  —  dashing  in  vain,  and  dying  away  against  that 
planted  cross ;  for  its  living  roots  are  wound  by  God 

30 


352       THE  CROSS  A  BURDEN  OR  A  GLORY. 

into  the  centre  and  core  of  the  world.  No  wonder  the 
sufferer  was  "  amazed/'  as  he  went  to  the  garden  !  No 
wonder,  as  the  shining  ones,  prophets  of  the  elder  cov 
enant,  met  him  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration,  this 
was  the  theme  of  their  high  communion,  and  they 
spoke  together  of  "  the  decease  which  he  should  accom 
plish  at  Jerusalem.'*  No  wonder,  as  the  hour  drew  on, 
sorrow  and  victory  took  their  sway  by  turns  in  his  feel 
ing,  for  he  was  the  son  of  Mary  as  well  as  the  son  of 
God.  "  Now,"  he  said,  "  Now  is  the  Son  of  Man  glori 
fied  ; "  and  then,  with  natural  anguish,  "  My  soul  is 
exceeding  sorrowful,  even  unto  death,"  and  in  the  dear 
craving  for  human  sympathy  that  brings  him  down 
from  Tabor  and  Zion  so  near  to  us  in  our  mortal  Geth- 
semane,  "  Tarry  ye  here  and  watch  with  me."  Now  it 
was  the  cry,  "  If  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from 
me ;  "  but  immediately  after,  "  Daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
weep  not  for  me,  but  for  yourselves  and  your  children." 
Amidst  the  pangs  of  the  crucifixion,  now  it  was  a 
prayer  for  himself,  Son  of  Man  ;  "  My  God !  my  God ! 
why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?  "  and  then  a  prayer  for 
his  murderers,  out  of  the  bosom  of  his  own  divinity, 
"  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do."  And  just  in  the  measure  that  the  spirit  of  his 
sacrifice  is  in  us  shall  we  be  praising  him  that  the 
path  of  his  eager  choice  was  the  march  to  the  Passover, 
to  his  Passion. 

Doubtless  there  was  a  necessity.  Sufferings  like  that, 
in  all  the  Father's  universe,  are  nowhere  borne  super 
fluously.  Crosses  are  nowhere  laid  on,  save  as  there  is 
necessity.  It  is  the  necessity  that  comes  of  the  inevita 
ble  conflict  of  right  with  wrong.  It  is  the  irreconcilable 
issue  of  the  law  of  God  and  the  disobedience  of  man. 


THE  CROSS  A  BUKDEN  OR  A  GLORY.       353 

The  first  must  stand,  have  its  way,  be  honored,  be  vin 
dicated,  be  maintained.  If  Justice,  blessed  Justice,  holy 
shield  and  safeguard  of  all  our  peace  both  human  and 
divine,  should  falter,  and  falter  up  there  in  its  very 
throne  and  fountain,  the  order  of  nature  would  be  shak 
en  into  anarchy.  But  then,  the  goodness  that  encom 
passes  all  that  necessity,  wiser  than  the  wit  of  human 
legislation,  knows  how  to  solve  its  hopeless  problem ; 
and  the  cross  is  its  solution.  It  is  freely  borne ;  it  is 
chosen  ;  it  is  gloried  in.  He  that  gives  himself,  saying, 
"  I  and  my  Father  are  one,"  how  shall  he  not  move, 
and  save,  and  atone  ?  He  that  gives  his  Son,  and  is  in 
him,  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself,  how  shall  he 
not  forgive  ?  Well  might  Paul,  and  the  Church,  and 
the  Christian  ages,  and  our  grateful  rejoicing  eyes,  look-' 
ing  up  to  that  "  miracle  of  time,"  "  God's  own  sacrifice 
complete,"  glory  in  it. 

Our  Ruler  is  our  Father.  He  is  "just,  and  the  justi- 
fier  of  him  that  believeth  in  Jesus."  God  forbid  that 
we  should  not  glory  in  this  ! 

And  if  we  glory  in  it,  friends,  in  the  only  practical 
way,  and  with  a  living  sympathy,  we  shall  share  in  the 
spirit  of  that  sacrifice.  Daily  self-denials,  cheerfully 
undertaken,  will  lighten  life  of  its  gloom,  and  make  the 
burdens  of  all  about  us  easier.  Pride  will  not  join 
with  the  Pharisees,  nor  indifference  with  Pilate,  nor 
luxury  with  Caiaphas,  nor  unbelieving  learning  with 
the  scribes,  nor  cruelty  and  slavery  to  man  with  the 
soldiery,  nor  sensuality  with  the  rabble,  to  crucify  the 
Son  of  God  afresh  and  put  him  to  an  open  shame. 
False  manners,  false  living,  false  speaking,  will  not 
deny  him.  Pretending  to  be  Christians,  we  shall  not, 
by  coldness  on  the  one  hand,  nor  by  bigotry  toward 


354       THE  CROSS  A  BURDEN  OR  A  GLOEY. 

brethren  on  the  other,  make  the  blood  of  this  meek  and 
holy  "  Lamb  of  God  without  blemish  and  without  spot," 
to  be  an  unholy  thing.  Hardship  will  not  be  a  hopeless 
burden.  Pain  will  not  make  us  forget  our  patience. 
Trouble  will  not  turn  us  away,  ungrateful,  from  our 
Father's  face.  Repentance  will  not  be  compulsory. 
Faith  will  not  be  reluctant.  Love  will  cast  out  fear. 
Nay,  in  all  these  things,  we  shall  be  conquerors,  and 
more  than  conquerors,  through  Him  who  hath  loved  us 
and  given  himself  for  us,  by  whom  the  world  is  crucified 
unto  us,  and  we  unto  the  world,  —  that,  being  dead 
unto  sin,  we  should  live,  new  creatures,  in  the  Spirit. 


SEKMON    XX. 


LIFE,    SALVATION,    AND    COMFORT    FOR    MAN    IN    THE 
DIVINE    TRINITY. 


GO  YE,  THEREFORE,  AND  TEACH  ALL  NATIONS,  BAPTIZING  THEM 
IN  THE  NAME  OF  THE  FATHER,  AND  OF  THE  SON,  AND  OF 

THE  HOLY  GHOST. — Matthew  xxviii.  19. 

THE  Saviour  spoke  these  words  at  a  moment  fitted 
above  all  others  for  a  clear  and  full  declaration  of  the 
fundamental  article  of  Christian  belief.  It  was  at  the 
end  of  his  visible  ministry  on  earth  and  his  outward 
connection  with  his  people.  It  was  when  he  was  com 
missioning  his  chosen  disciples  to  their  work,  —  a  work 
which  was  to  take  up  and  bear  on  his  own  work 
through  all  the  future  ages.  In  every  respect,  it  was 
the  natural  and  fitting  time  for  the  decisive,  explicit 
communication  of  the  one  essential  characteristic  truth 
of  his  religion.  The  "  teaching  Church  "  was  then  to  be 
told  what  was  to  be  taught.  That  central  and  sublime 
verity  on  which  the  whole  matter  of  the  Gospel  rested 
was  to  be  condensed  into  a  brief,  comprehensive,  sig 
nificant  sentence.  This  is  the  last  hour.  It  is  the  crit 
ical  and  awful  meeting  and  commingling  of  two  won 
drous  periods,  —  the  period  of  the  Incarnation,  and  of 
the  everlasting  age  of  the  organized  Christian  common- 
so* 


356         LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOR  MAN 

wealth.  Now,  if  ever,  Christ  will  distinctly  proclaim 
the  doctrine  of  Christendom.  We  listen  with  breath 
less  anxiety  to  hear  what  Christianity  means.  Under 
these  solemn  conditions,  at  this  unparalleled  crisis,  it  is 
remarkable  that  our  Lord  gives  his  Church  three  things 
necessary  to  its  life,  —  a  Ministry,  an  initiatory  Ordi 
nance,  a  Creed  :  —  Go  and  teach,  — baptize,  —  in  the 
Triune  name.  "What  concerns  us  now  is,  not  the  order 
of  Preachers,  nor  the  Sacraments,  but  the  Doctrine. 
We  find  here  no  recapitulation  of  moral  and  spiritual 
precepts,  as  the  ethical  view  would  lead  us  to  expect ; 
no  array  of  what  are  sometimes  called  practical  direc 
tions.  We  find  something  more  grandly  profound  and 
more  intensely  practical.  Our  faith  is  summoned  to 
the  three  persons  of  the  one  God  :  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost.  No  hint  is  given  that  there  is  any 
difference  of  nature,  dignity,  duration,  power,  or  glory 
between  them.  There  is  nothing  in  the  situation,  the 
relations,  or  the  contents  of  the  Divine  formula  to  sug 
gest  that  either  of  the  three  is  less  than  the  others,  or 
less  than  God.  The  obvious,  unforced,  natural  inter 
pretation  is  that  the  Three  are  persons,  and  that  the  Per 
sons  are  three.  Each  of  them  is  elsewhere  in  the  Scrip 
tures  referred  to  as  God.  Each  of  them  is  distinguished 
from  the  others  by  the  personal  pronouns.  To  each  of 
them  Divine  attributes  and  Divine  acts  are  ascribed, 
and  to  each  Divine  worship  is  offered.  So,  by  a  vast 
preponderance,  the  Church  of  Christ  has  received  and 
held  these  words.  So  all  the  parts  and  powers  and 
operations  of  the  entire  Gospel  agree.  The  term 
Trinity  is  not  applied  to  the  doctrine  in  the  Bible  ;  but 
it  is  a  definite  and  just  description  of  what  the  Bible 
teaches  ;  and  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be 


IN   THE  DIVINE  TRINITY.  357 

adopted  and  used.  It  is  sanctioned  by  the  venerable 
and  hallowed  custom  of  Christian  centuries,  and  of 
innumerable  hosts  of  confessors,  sages,  and  saints. 
There  is  an  especial  reason  for  using  it  if  from  its 
omission  the  inference  should  be  anywhere  drawn  that 
the  truth  itself,  which  the  term  conveys,  is  denied. 
Calvin  said  he  was  willing  that  the  name  "  Trinity  " 
should  be  "  buried  and  forgot,"  if  only  this  could  be 
the  accepted  faith  of  all,  —  that  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Spirit,  each  distinguished  by  a  peculiar  property,  arc 
one  God.  Equally  willing  ought  we  to  be  to  take  up 
and  assert  that  name,  if  thereby  we  may  render  to  this 
"  accepted  faith  "  any  more  unambiguous  or  unreserved 
honor. 

Let  the  solemn  and  tender  spirit  of  that  parting 
scene  where  the  doctrine  was  announced  with  such 
august  authority  be  given  to  our  unworthy  attempt  to 
reaffirm  it !  It  ought  to  be  the  last  of  all  subjects  to 
be  handled  in  a  hard,  technical,  jejune,  or  merely  dog 
matic  treatment.  Still  less  should  the  sharp,  fierce 
temper  of  dialectical  ambition  or  partisan  controversy 
intrude  to  embitter  the  discussion.  How  different  might 
have  been  the  result,  for  the  interests  of  a  true  theology 
and  an  undefiled  religion,  if,  in  their  arguments  and 
expostulations  for  their  Master's  divinity,  believers 
had  always  remembered  the  gentleness  of  his  exam 
ple  !  May  that  Lord  of  perfect  love  breathe  a  better 
influence  over  the  studies,  reasonings,  and  persuasions 
of  those  who  seek  to  behold  and  publish  his  glory  !  No 
apprehension,  however  clear  or  deep,  of  the  great  real 
ity  of  the  Three-in-one  can  justify  a  defence  with  the 
unhallowed  weapons  of  pride,  denunciation,  or  dogma 
tism.  We  must  remember  there  is  also  a  threefold 


358          LIFE, 

unity  of  the  complete  human  goodness,  as  of  the  being 
of  our  God,  and  that  of  this  charity  is  the  perfect  bond. 
If  we  break  it,  earnestness  may  plead  in  extenuation 
for  us,  but  it  never  expunges  the  wrong.  And  with 
charity  let  us  try  to  keep  humility ;  —  try  to  keep  it  the 
more,  since  one  of  the"  plainest  offices  of  the  special 
mystery  of  faith  before  us  is  to  require  and  preserve 
this  lowliness  of  the  Christian  mind.  Where  the  arro 
gant,  self-asserting  intellect  has  to  veil  its  face,  pre 
sumption  in  judgment  may  well  lie  still.  If  in  all  the 
circle  of  sacred  themes  there  is  one  where  both  the  dry- 
ness  of  scholastic  speculation  and  the  acerbity  of  polem 
ics  should  be  laid  aside,  where  the  method  should  be 
spiritual,  the  tone  devout,  and  all  the  thoughts  pene 
trated  and  tempered  with  the  fragrancy  of  holy  affec 
tions,  it  surely  is  this.* 

It  may  furnish  an  aid  to  this  catholicity,  as  it  cer 
tainly  is  an  impressive  testimony  to  the  doctrine  itself, 
that  the  Christian  world  has  been  so  generally  agreed 
in  it.  Truth  is  not  determined  by  majorities ;  and  yet 
it  would  be  contrary  to  the  laws  of  our  constitution  not 
to  be  affected  by  a  testimony  so  vast,  uniform,  and 
sacred  as  that  which  is  rendered  by  the  common  belief 
of  Christian  history  and  the  Christian  countries  to  the 
truth  of  the  Trinity.  There  is  something  extremely 
painful,  not  to  say  irreverent,  towards  the  Providence 
which  has  watched  and  led  the  true  Christian  Israel,  in 
presuming  that  a  tenet  so  emphatically  and  gladly  re 
ceived  in  all  the  ages  and  regions  of  Christendom  as 


*  "  So  that  we  may  rather  experience  the  power  of  these  mysteries 
of  the  Trinity  in  the  heart  than  speak  about  them  in  lofty  words." 

—  TwESTEN. 


IN  THE  DIVINE  TRINITY.  359 

almost  literally  to  meet  the  terms  of  the  test  of  Vin- 
centius,  —  believed  always,  everywhere,  and  by  all,* — 
is  unfounded  in  revelation  and  truth.  Such  a  conclu 
sion  puts  an  aspect  of  uncertainty  over  the  mind  of  the 
Church  scarcely  consistent  with  any  tolerable  confi 
dence  in  that  great  promise  of  the  Master,  that  he 
would  be  with  his  own  all  days.  We  travel  abroad 
through  these  converted  lands,  over  the  round  world. 
We  enter,  at  the  call  of  the  Sabbath  morning  light,  the 
place  of  assembled  worshippers :  let  it  be  the  newly- 
planted  conventicle  on  the  edge  of  the  Western  forest, 
or  the  missionary  station  at  the  extremity  of  the  East 
ern  continent ;  let  it  be  the  collection  of  northern 
mountaineers,  or  of  the  dwellers  in  southern  valleys ; 
let  it  be  in  the  plain  village  meeting-house,  or  in  the 
magnificent  cathedrals  of  the  old  cities ;  let  it  be  the 
crowded  congregation  of  the  metropolis,  or  the  "  two  or 
three  "  that  meet  in  faith  in  upper  chambers,  or  in  log- 
huts,  or  under  palm-trees ;  let  it  be  groups  in  dark  and 
by-way  alleys,  companies  of  rescued  vagrants,  victims  of 
persecution  in  caves  of  the  rocks  and  hiding-places  of 
the  hills ;  let  it  be  regenerate  bands  gathered  to  pray 
in  any  of  the  islands  of  the  ocean,  or  thankful  circles 
of  believers  confessing  their  dependence  and  beseeching 
pardon  on  ships'  decks  in  the  midst  of  the  ocean.  So 
we  pass  over  the  outstretched  countries  of  both  hemi 
spheres  :  — it  is  well-nigh  certain,  —  so  certain  that  the 
rare  and  scattered  exceptions  drop  out  of  the  broad  and 
general  conclusion,  —  that  the  lowly  petitions,  the  fer 
vent  supplications,  the  hearty  confessions,  the  eager 
thanksgivings,  or  the  grand  peals  of  choral  adoration, 

#  "  Quod  semper,  quod  ubjque,  quod  ab  omnibus," 


360 

which  our  ears  shall  hear  will  end  in  the  uplifting  ascrip 
tion  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  one 
ever-living  and  almighty  God  of  all  the  earth.  This  is 
the  voice  of  the  unhesitating  praise  that  embraces  and 
hallows  the  globe.  Or  we  stand  still,  and  look  back 
ward,  to  see  what  teaching  it  has  been  that  has  achieved 
all  the  great  results  that  we  glory  in,  as  constituting  our 
Christian  civilization ;  and  we  find  that  in  simple,  his 
torical  fact,  this  very  doctrine  appears  in  immediate 
and  significant  connection  with  nearly  all.  It  is  this, 
or  at  least  that  system  of  which  this  is  a  characteristic 
and  inseparable  element,  which  has  reverently  reared 
the  majestic  and  humbler  temples,  has  piled  up  the  vast 
cruciform  structures  by  the  hands  of  generations  which 
crumbled  one  after  another  as  the  slow  toil  proceeded, 
has  written  the  ancient  creeds  and  modern  confessions, 
has  prayed  the  earlier  and  later  litanies,  has  sung  the 
glorias  and  misereres  of  exultant  or  penitent  millions, 
has  lifted  the  sweet  hymns  of  East  and  West,  has  or 
ganized  missions  and  sent  forth  their  messengers,  has 
called  councils  and  subdued  nations  to  the  cross,  has 
conserved  the  order  and  reformed  the  abuses  of  imper 
fect  administrations,  and  has  presided  over  the  learning, 
the  philosophy,  and  the  poetry  in  the  literature  of  the 
Christian  centuries.  Throughout  all  these  diversities  of 
sacred  operation,  this  old  and  vital  truth,  reaffirmed, 
hardly  questioned,  if  omitted  soon  resumed  again,  kept 
clear  and  confident,  has  wrought,  has  builded,  has  pre 
served.  And  then,  if  we  enter  into  the  private  expe 
riences,  the  griefs,  and  strifes,  and  sorrows  of  the 
unnumbered  multitudes  that  have  been  born  in  pain, 
and  died  in  the  midst  of  tears,  it  is  this  truth  which  has 
kept  its  vigils  by  the  weary  processions  of  sufferers,  and 


IN  THE   DIVINE  TRINITY.  361 

consoled  them.  All  this  is  the  undeniable  report  of 
facts.  That  there  have  been  some,  in  different  places, 
limited  communities,  or  scattered  individuals,  avowing 
belief  in  the  religion,  and  honorable  in  character,  who 
have  rejected  the  doctrine,  is  evident.  Yet  it  keeps  its 
place,  —  never  more  firmly  established,  or  widely  wel 
comed,  with  its  related  and  attendant  truths,  than  to 
day.  Grateful  for  a  support  so  comforting,  and  a  sym 
pathy  so  large,  its  advocates  can  afford  to  leave  all 
impatience  and  intolerance  to  less  privileged  men.* 

The  object  of  the  present  discourse  is  not  to  offer  a 
systematic,  much  less  an  exhaustive  statement,  of  the 
grounds,  Scriptural  or  extra-Scriptural,  for  a  belief  in 
the  Divine  Trinity.  Such  of  these  as  may  appear  are 
incidental  to  the  different  and  practical  purpose  of 
showing  how  that  belief  ministers  to  the  spiritual 
life,  salvation,  and  comfort  of  the  believer.  Only 
to  prepare  the  way,  possibly,  for  a  more  favorable 
entertainment  of  this  latter  attempt,  we  introduce  it 
with  the  briefest  sketch  of  the  form  of  the  doctrine 


*  Hardly  anything  respecting  the  history  of  the  Trinity  is  more  remark 
able  than  the  substantial  agreement  amidst  the  large  variety  of  forms  and 
shades  under  which  the  doctrine  has  been  theologically  presented.  In  the 
face  of  the  libraries  of  close  controversy,  and  the  number  of  schools,  —  all 
of  them  signs  of  the  intense  vitality  and  power  hidden  in  the  inmost  spir 
itual  economy  of  the  article,  —  the  strong  thinkers  upon  it  are,  after  all, 
essentially  and  persistently  at  one :  the  early  and  mediccval  Fathers,  the 
Continental  and  English  reformers,  the  Anglican  scholars,  the  Puritan 
and  American  divines,  —  Athanasius  and  Tholuck,  Fenelon  and  Knox, 
Augustine  and  Anselm,  Calvin  and  Taylor,  Luther  and  Bossuet,  Bull  and 
Baxter,  Horsley  and  Howe,  Pearson,  Newman,  Pascal,  Cudworth,  Wolf, 
Butler,  Tauler  and  Hopkins,  Waterland  and  Edwards,  Sherlock  and 
Dwight,  Stuart,  Neander.  Nice,  Trent,  Augsburg,  Westminster,  Prince 
ton,  Andover,  New  Haven,  with  their  symbols,  notwithstanding  their  differ 
ences,  are  Trinitarian. 


362 

as  it  is  accepted  in  our  own  thought,  always  striving 
to  remember,  and  entreating  the  reader  to  remember, 
the  inadequacy  of  both  thought  and  language  to  com 
prehend  or  to  define  what  is  too  high  for  everything  in 
us  but  faith.  With  another  we  can  say,  in  no  ostenta 
tion  of  modesty,  that  we  "  do  not  undertake  to  fathom 
the  interior  being  of  God,  and  tell  how  it  is  composed. 
That  is  a  matter  too  high  for  us  all."  And,  with  the 
penetrating .  and  healthy  mind  of  Robertson,  in  no 
strained  sense,  we  can  say,  of  the  things  of  religion, 
"the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  the  sum  of  all  that 
knowledge  which  has  yet  been  gained  by  man." 

In  the  transcendent,  removed,  and  awful  depth  of 
his  Absolute  Infinitude,  which  no  understanding  can 
pierce,  the  Everlasting  and  Almighty  God  lives  in 
an  existence  of  which  our  only  possible  knowledge  is 
gained  by  lights  thrown  back  from  revelation.  Out  of 
that  ineffable  and  veiled  Godhead, — the  groundwork, 
if  we  may  say  so,  of  all  Divine  manifestation,  or  theo- 
phany,  there  emerge  to  us  in  revelation  the  three  whom 
we  rightly  call  persons,  —  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 
with  their  several  individual  offices,  mutual  relations, 
operations  towards  men,  and  perfect  unity  together. 
Holding  fast  the  prime  and  positive  fact  of  this  unity, 
we  have  given  us,  as  an  equal  matter  of  faith,  the 
Threeness.  We  know  of  no  priority  to  that  Threeness ; 
of  no  epoch  when  it  was  not ;  of  no  Deity  independent 
of  that  threefold  distinction.  A  question  at  that  point 
takes  us  over  into  realms  utterly  inscrutable  to  thought. 
We  conceive  of  God  always,  not  as  Absolute  Being,  but 
as  in  relations,  in  process,  in  act.  And  in  such  rela 
tions,  process,  act,  we  behold  him  only  as  Three :  —  the 
Son  eternally  begotten  of  the  Father,  not  subordinate 


IN  THE  DIVINE  TRINITY.  363 

in  nature  or  essence,  nor  created,  nor  beginning,  but 
consubstantial  with  the  Father  :  —  the  Holy  Ghost  ever 
proceeding  from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  not  in  time, 
nor  made  out  of  nothing,  but  one  in  power  and  glory 
and  eternity  with  them  both.*  Christ  comes  forth  out 
of  the  Godhead  as  the  Son,  the  Saviour,  and,  being  born 
of  Mary,  is  Jesus,  the  Messiah.  We  could  not  know 
him  in  those  very  characters  which  he  must  sustain  in 
order  to  be  our  Redeemer  except  as  he  really  takes 
upon  himself  our  nature,  a  voluntary  human  subjec 
tion  :  as  it  is  precisely  written,  "  the  image  of  the  invis 
ible  God "  in  humanity.  This  is  the  mystery  of  the 
Incarnation.  This  was  the  precise  mercy  to  be  wrought 
for  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  world's  sin.  He 
was  to  leave  "  the  glory  which  he  had  with  the  Father 
before  the  world  was,"  and  "  be  made  in  fashion  as  a 
man,"  be  "  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin,"  be 
"  a  High-Priest  that  can  be  touched  with  the  feeling  of 
our  infirmities,"  "  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,"  "  God 
with  us."  To  this  agree  all  the  Scriptures. f 

It  was  to  be  expected  that,  in  repeated  instances,  this 
incarnate  Son,  engaged  on  his  redeeming  and  interces 
sory  work  would  be  shown  as  dependent  on  the  Father, 
who  now  represents  to  us  the  unseen  personality  of  the 
Godhead,  —  as  submissive,  suffering,  deferential,  obedi 
ent  even  unto  death,  perfect  in  humiliation.  Volunta- 


*  "  These  (Nicene)  documents  do  not  mean  that  God,  at  some  date 
called  "  Eternity,"  begat  his  Son  and  sent  forth  his  Holy  Spirit,  but  that, 
in  some  high  sense  undefinable,  he  is  datelessly  and  eternally  becoming 
Three." 

t  The  author's  reasons  for  believing  in  the  proper  Divinity  of  Christ 
have  been  partly  stated  in  "Sermons  for  the  People/' — XVIII,  XX., 
XXII,  XXVI 

31 


364          LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOR  MAN 

rily,  to  this  end,  and  for  the  time,  things  which  only  the 
Father  knoweth  are  veiled  from  the  Son,  and  he  says 
(in  language  which  we  have  only  to  suppose  put  into 
the  mouth  of  any  other  being  to  find  it  in  fact  a  proof 
of  his  divinity),  "My  Father  is  greater  than  I."  He 
prays ;  how  else  could  he  be  the  Intercessor  ?  He 
obeys,  is  sent,  lessens  himself  to  dependency  for  the 
sake  of  mediation.  How  else  could  the  Divine  will 
and  perfection  be  displayed  under  human  conditions  ? 
Hence  the  whole  of  that  instrumental  inequality  be 
tween  Son  and  Father,  which  is  wrought  into  the 
Biblical  language,  remains  in  all  our  devotional  habit, 
and  which  ought  to  remain  there  to  give  us  a  realiza 
tion  of  the  wondrous  fact  of  the  redemption,  that  we 
may  apprehend  our  Saviour  both  as  God  and  as  man. 
Nor  is  there  any  great  practical  difficulty,  as  experi 
ence  abundantly  shows,  in  disconnecting  from  this 
endearing  conception  the  notion  that  this  is  a  per 
manent  or  subjective  subordination.  The  apprehen 
sion  is  by  faith,  or  by  the  spiritual  power.  And  yet 
the  understanding  itself  receives  help  and  illumination 
from  this  Scriptural  and  consistent  view  of  the  whole 
august  theme.  A  Trinity  of  co-equal  persons,  with 
diverse  offices,  is,  if  we  may  so  express  it,  the  sublime 
working-scheme  of  Revelation  and  Redemption. 

Minds  just  passing  away  from  the  opposite  view,  and 
first  adopting  the  faith  that  Christ  is  verily  their  Lord 
and  God,  are  liable  to  a  kind  of  surprise  when  they  are 
called  back  from  this  new  contemplation  of  his  actual 
divinity  by  those  texts  which  represent  him  as  doing 
nothing  "  of  himself."  But  a  deeper  reflection  will  dis 
cover  that  this  very  language  is  one  way  of  referring  up 
the  springs  of  his  personal  action  into  the  Godhead ; 


IN  THE  DIVINE  TRINITY.  365 

and  that  the  human  representations  are  just  as  essential 
to  the  completeness  of  the  twofold  view  of  the  Saviour 
in  his  incarnation,  —  the  mediator  sharing  the  two 
natures  of  the  parties  mediated,  —  as  the  language 
which  tells  us  so  distinctly  of  his  divinity.  Consider, 
too,  —  if  the  Incarnation  was  to  be  a  fact  at  all,  —  how 
the  Saviour  could  possibly  lead  the  rude  and  unpre 
pared  men  about  him,  who  saw  him  every  day  "  in 
fashion  as  a  man,"  to  conceive  of  him  in  his  higher 
character,  except  by  exactly  the  gradual  and  accommo 
dating  process  of  language  which  he  employed. 

Nothing  is  much  easier,  of  course,  when  the  spiritual 
faculty  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  truth  announced, 
than  for  the  critical  reason  to  go  to  work  and  thrust 
upon  it  any  number  of  difficulties.  All  readers  of 
theological  controversy  know  well  enough  beforehand 
what  they  will  be.  And  if  the  deeper  want  has  been 
awakened  in  them,  they  know  presently  just  as  well 
how  unsatisfying  these  objections  are,  as  well  as  their 
steady  proclivity  to  a  bold  and  extreme  negation  of 
what  they  regard  the  peculiar  glories  of  the  religion 
of  the  Gospel.  Still,  we  must  expect  to  hear  them 
announced,  again  and  again,  with  all  the  conscious 
complacency  of  a  supposed  originality.  We  shall  have 
arithmetic,  mechanics,  common  sense,  psychology,  dil 
igently  invoked  to  prove  our  absurdity.  Meantime, 
faith  will  be  probably  just  as  little  disturbed  in  the 
future  as  she  has  been  in  the  ages  past,  and  those 
excellent  mathematical  and  metaphysical  sciences  will 
keep  their  places  of  utility,  with  no  serious  damage 
from  the  false  appeal  made  to  them.  To  all  such  oppo 
sitions,  the  believer  has  to  make  a  single  and  sufficient 
answer :  "  I  know  in  whom  I  have  believed ;  "  and  if  he 


366          LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOR  MAN 

may  do  so  without  presumption,  lie  will  repeat  those 
great  words  of  the  Apostle,  written  from  1  Cor.  i.  23  to 
the  sixteenth  verse  of  the  second  chapter,  beginning, 
"  But  we  preach  Christ  crucified." 

For  those  who  do  not  see  the  literal  divinity  or 
deity  of  Christ  it  appears  difficult  to  entertain  the  idea 
that  the  Saviour's  perfect  humanity  is  just  as  dear  to  the 
Trinitarian,  and  just  as  theologically  important  as  his 
perfect  divinity :  indeed  that  each  is  indispensable  to 
the  whole  mediatorial  office.  For  him  who  has  "  all 
power  in  heaven  and  earth  "  to  say  "  Of  that  day  and 
hour  knoweth  not  the  Son  "  is  condescension  indeed ! 
It  brings  God  near,  as  in  his  unabated  attributes  he 
could  not  be  brought.  But  the  objector,  if  he  recog 
nizes  the  Scriptural  authority  at  all,  will  still  have  other 
passages,  just  as  explicit  and  undeniable,  to  dispose  of, 
before  he  has  adjusted  the  scheme  of  his  Christology. 
The  Eternal  Son  is  seen  remaining  rooted  forever 
in  the  Godhead,  having  the  basis  of  his  being  un 
changed,  deific,  uncreated.  Then  he  speaks  to  say,  "  I 
and  my  Father  are  one  ;  "  "  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath 
seen  the  Father."  With  these  decisive  affirmations  ac 
cord  a  large  class  in  the  New  Testament,  both  direct 
and  indirect.  Paul  speaks  of  Christ  as  set  "  far  above 
all  principality  and  power,  and  might  and  dominion, 
and  every  name  that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  world, 
but  also  in  that  which  is  to  come."  Can  this  be  a  crea 
ture  ?  "  That  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should 
bow,  and  every  tongue  confess  that  he  is  Lord."  Is  not 
this  a  being  to  whom  prayer  is  to  be  offered  ?  "  The 
God  of  our  fathers  raised  up  Jesus ;  him  hath  God 
exalted,"  preached  Peter  and  the  rest,  "to  be  a  Prince 
and  a  Saviour  for  to  give  repentance  to  Israel  and  for- 


IN   THE   DIVINE   TEINITY.  367 

giveness  of  sins."  Is  it  not  right  to  ask  him  who  gives 
"  repentance  and  forgiveness  of  sins  "  to  do  it  ?  "He 
is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,"  writes  John,  "  and  not 
for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world." 
A  man,  a  mortal  and  finite  nature,  the  "  propitiation 
for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world ! "  At  last,  when  all 
the  purposes  of  the  propitiation  are  accomplished,  —  in 
that  dim,  far-off,  well-nigh  inconceivable  future  toward 
which  a  prophetic  eye  once  ventures  to  reach,  —  this 
incarnate  "  Head  over  all  things  to  the  Church  "  will 
render  up  the  kingdom  to  the  Father,  and  resume  his 
place  in  the  co-equal  Three,  the  indivisible  One.  Mark 
the  expressions  (1  Cor.  xv.  24,  28).  It  is  the  Son  who 
hath  put  "  all  things  under  his  feet,"  "  all  rule,  author 
ity,  and  power,"  who  is  "  subject  unto  God  (viroTa- 
yrfa-eTaiy  "  arranged  under  ").  Just  after,  it  is  God  that 
"  hath  put  all  things  under  him."  In  this  sense,  there 
fore,  God  and  the  Son  are  the  same,  for  the  same  mas 
tery  is  asserted  of  each.  But  the  Son,  in  his  char 
acter  of  Sonship,  is  retaken,  so  to  speak,  into  the  ever 
lasting,  almighty,  ineffable,  undivided  One,  where  the 
distinctions  of  office  which  had  aided  us  so  greatly  in 
apprehending  the  glorious  Trinity  are  lost  to  our  sight. 
It  is  not  anything  peculiar  to  one  of  the  Three  Per 
sons,  but  God  in  whom  they  all  are  One,  who  then  "  is 
all  in  all."  * 

*  The  following  paragraphs,  indicating  a  particular  and  original  line  of 
proof,  are  taken  from  Bushnell's  "  Nature  and  the  Supernatural." 

"  There  is  yet  another  point  related  to  this,  in  which  the  attitude  of 
Jesus  is  even  more  distinct  from  any  that  was  ever  taken  by  man,  and  is 
yet  triumphantly  sustained.  I  speak  of  the  astonishing  pretensions  as 
serted  concerning  his  person.  Similar  pretensions  have  sometimes  been 
assumed  by  maniacs,  or  insane  persons,  but  never,  so  far  as  I  know,  by  per 
sons  in  the  proper  exercise  of  their  reason.  Certain  it  is  that  no  mere  man 
31* 


368          LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT  FOE  MAN 

Both  in  the  interior  necessities  of  the  evangelical  sys 
tem  as  a  consistent  whole,  and  in  the  ordinary  habit  of 
theological  thought,  a  proper  acceptance  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  Incarnation  and  of  the  true  Divinity  of  the  Sec 
ond  Person  is  attended  with  a  prompt  assent  to  the  Divin- 

could  take  the  same  attitude  of  supremacy  toward  the  race,  and  inherent 
affinity  or  oneness  with  God,  without  fatally  shocking  the  confidence  of 
the  world  by  his  effrontery.  Imagine  a  human  nature  saying  to  the  world, 
'  I  came  forth  from  the  Father/  —  '  ye  are  beneath,  I  am  from  above ; ' 
facing  all  the  intelligence  and  even  the  philosophy  of  the  world,  and  say 
ing  in  bold  assurance,  '  Behold  a  greater  than  Solomon  is  here/  — '  I 
am  the  light  of  the  world/  — '  the  way,  the  truth,  the  life  ; '  publishing 
to  all  people  and  religions,  '  No  man  cometh  to  the  Father  but  by  me ; ' 
promising  openly  in  his  death,  '  I  will  draw  all  men  unto  me ; '  address 
ing  the  Infinite  Majesty,  and  testifying,  '  I  have  glorified  thee  on  the 
earth ; '  calling  to  the  human  race,  '  Come  unto  me/  '  follow  me ; ' 
laying  his  hand  upon  all  the  dearest  and  most  intimate  affections  of  life, 
and  demanding  a  precedent  love,  — '  He  that  loveth  father  or  mother  more 
than  me,  is  not  worthy  of  me/  Was  there  ever  a  man  that  dared  put  him 
self  on  the  world  in  such  pretensions  ?  —  as  if  all  light  was  in  him,  as  if  to 
follow  him  and  be  worthy  of  him  was  to  be  the  conclusive  or  chief  excel 
lence  of  mankind !  But  no  one  is  offended  with  Jesus  on  this  account, 
and,  what  is  a  sure  test  of  his  success,  it  is  remarkable  that,  of  all  the 
readers  of  the  Gospel,  it  probably  never  occurs  to  one  in  a  hundred  thou 
sand  to  blame  his  conceit  or  the  egregious  vanity  of  his  pretensions. 

"  Nor  is  there  anything  disputable  in  these  pretensions,  least  of  all,  any 
trace  of  myth  or  fabulous  tradition.  They  enter  into  the  very  web  of 
his  ministry,  so  that  if  they  are  extracted  and  nothing  left  transcending 
mere  humanity,  nothing  at  all  is  left.  Indeed,  there  is  a  tacit  assumption, 
continually  maintained,  that  far  exceeds  the  range  of  these  formal  preten 
sions.  He  says,  '  I  and  the  Father  that  sent  me  ! '  What  figure  would  a 
man  present  in  such  language,  —  I  and  the  Father  ?  He  goes  even  beyond 
this,  and,  apparently  without  any  thought  of  excess  or  presumption,  class 
ing  himself  with  the  Infinite  Majesty  in  a  common  plural,  he  says,  '  We 
will  come  unto  him  and  make  our  abode  with  him/  Imagine  any,  the 
greatest  and  holiest  of  mankind,  any  prophet  or  apostle,  saying  We  of 
himself  and  the  Great  Jehovah  !  What  a  conception  did  he  give  us  con 
cerning  himself  when  he  assumed  the  necessity  of  such  information  as  this, 
'  My  Father  is  greater  than  I ; '  and  above  all,  when  he  calls  himself,  as 
he  often  does  in  a  tone  of  condescension,  'the  Son  of  Man/  See 


IN   THE  DIVINE  TRINITY.  369 

ity  of  the  Third.*  A  just  Christology  carries  with  it  a 
just  Pneumatology.  The  baptismal  formula,  in  the  text, 
would  alone  put  the  personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  a 
ground  of  reasonable  certainty,  through  the  most  natu 
ral  understanding  of  the  words.  If  He  is  personal,  no 
considerable  number  of  men  have  ever  been  found  to 
question  that  he  is  God,  nor  to  hesitate  at  the  Tri-unity. 
How  forced  would  be  the  suppression,  —  and  putting 
what  a  repulsive  ambiguity  on  this  final  and  moment 
ous  commission  of  the  Lord's  followers  for  the  conver 
sion  of  the  world,  —  if  he  first  mentioned  two  names 
which,  as  all  alike  agree,  are  names  of  distinct  persons, 

him  also  on  the  top  of  Olivet,  looking  down  on  the  guilty  city  and  weep 
ing  words  of  compassion  like  these,  —  imagine  some  men  weeping  over 
London  or  New  York,  in  the  like,  — '  How  often  would  I  have  gathered 
thy  children  together  as  a  hen  doth  gather  her  chickens  under  her  wings, 
and  ye  would  not ! '  See  him  also  in  the  Supper,  instituting  a  rite  of 
remembrance  for  himself,  a  scorned,  outcast  man,  and  saying,  '  This  is  my 
body,  —  this  do  in  remembrance  of  me.' 

"  Come  now,  all  ye  that  tell  us  in  your  wisdonf  of  the  mere  natural  human 
ity  of  Jesus,  and  help  us  to  find  how  it  is,  that  he  is  only  a  natural  develop 
ment  of  the  human ;  select  your  wisest  and  best  character ;  take  the  range, 
if  you  will,  of  all  the  great  philosophers  and  saints,  and  choose  out  one 
that  is  most  competent ;  or  if,  perchance,  some  one  of  you  may  imagine 
that  he  is  himself  about  upon  a  level  with  Jesus  (as  we  hear  that  some  of 
you  do),  let  him  come  forward  in  this  trial  and  say,  — « Follow  me,'  — 
'be  worthy  of  me/  —  'I  am  the  light  of  the  world,'  —  'ye  are  from 
beneath,  I  am  from  above,'  —  '  behold  a  greater  than  Solomon  is  here  ; ' 
take  on  all  these  transcendent  assumptions,  and  see  how  soon  your  glory 
will  be  sifted  out  of  you  by  the  detective  gaze,  and  darkened  by  the  con 
tempt  of  mankind  !  Why  not ;  is  not  the  challenge  fair  ?  Do  you  not 
tell  us  that  you  can  say  as  divine  things  as  he  ?  Is  it  not  in  you  too,  of 
course,  to  do  what  is  human  ?  Are  you  not  in  the  front  rank  of  human 
developments  ?  Do  you  not  rejoice  in  the  power  to  rectify  many  mis 
takes  and  errors  in  the  words  of  Jesus  ?  Give  us  then  this  one  experi 
ment,  and  see  if  it  does  not  prove  to  you  a  truth  that  is  of  some  conse 
quence  ;  viz.  that  you  are  a  man,  and  that  Jesus  Christ  is  —  more  ? " 

*  See  Hare's  "  Mission  of  the  Comforter." 


370  LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOR   MAN 

and  then  slipped  in,  without  notice  or  explanation,  a 
name  which  purports  to  be  just  as  much  the  name  of  a 
person  as  the  other  two,  but  which  is  only  a  common 
noun  signifying  an  immaterial  influence  !  How  despe 
rate  the  shifts  of  a  determined  theory  !  The  fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  chapters  of  John  are  equally  explicit. 
No  personality  was  ever  more  clearly  pronounced,  by 
the  appropriate  attributes  and  pronouns,  than  is  that 
of  the  Comforter  there.  In  those  tender  and  solemn 
conversations,  charged  with  the  only  hope  and  counsel 
to  the  disciples  about  to  be  bereaved,  and  indeed  to  the 
world  of  mankind,  is  it  possible  our  Saviour  was  deal 
ing  in  dark  paradoxes  or  uninterpreted  figures  of  rhet 
oric  ?  Many  other  passages  in  the  Gospels  and  Epistles 
can  be  wrested  from  their  obvious  meaning  only  by  a 
similar  violence.  It  is  so  with  the  Apostolical  bene 
dictions,  which  were  evidently  intended  to  be,  what 
they  have  so  generally  proved,  the  familiar  reposito 
ries  and  often-repeated  symbols  of  the  great  central 
facts  of  Christian  theology.  Apart  from  some  pre 
conceived  purpose,  who  would  ever  suppose  there  was  a 
sudden  lapse  or  deviation  from  the  personal  to  the  im 
personal  style,  on  getting  half  or  two  thirds  through 
that  worshipful  and  pre-eminent  blessing :  "  The  grace 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of  God,  and 
the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  with  us  all  ever 
more  "  ? 

That  the  influence  emanating  from  that  Person 
should  be  sometimes  represented  as  subject  to  im 
personal  or  passive  conditions,  —  as  "poured  out," 
"  given,"  "  transmitted,"  "  shed  abroad,"  and  the 
like,  is  not  strange  ;  nor  that  these  influences  should 
be  so  personified  that  they  and  the  Person  they  proceed 


IN   THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  371 

from  should  be  sometimes  designated  under  the  same 
term.  "VVe  say  of  the  spirit  of  a  man  that  it  is  diffused, 
imparted,  communicated,  in  the  same  manner.  But 
who  supposes  that  this  denies  the  personality  of  the 
man  ?  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  usage  nor  anal- 
ogy  to  justify  us  in  reversing  this  popular  practice  of 
language,  and  concluding  that  because  principles  may 
be  personified,  persons,  clearly  described  and  shown  to 
us  as  such,  may  be  stripped  of  their  personality,  and 
refined  away  into  impressions.  The  other  class  of 
passages  remains  undisturbed,  where  this  personality 
is  affirmed,  —  passages  to  be  disposed  of,  on  the  anti- 
Trinitarian  hypothesis,  only  by  constructions  to  which 
Reason  herself  should  be  very  reluctant  to  offer  her 
protection. 

Thus,  in  the  internal  and  permanent  basis  of  their 
eternal  being,  the  Three  are  one  and  the  same,  as  much 
so  as  three  different  intermingling  oceans,  underflowing 
and  encircling  the  continents,  are  one  sea.  In  God 
revealed  these  three  personalities  issue  forth  to  take 
up  their  merciful  and  glorious  offices  as  Father,  Son, 
Spirit.  It  lias  been  justly  observed  that  the  strictly 
evangelical  origin  of  the  term  "  Father,"  or  its  applica 
tion  simultaneously  with  the  appearance  of  Christ,  and 
in  immediate  connection  with  the  new  economy  of  the 
Incarnation,  is  itself  a  suggestion  of  the  Tri-une  belief, 
as  implying  that  not  all  of  God  is  expressed  till  the 
"  Son  "  also,  the  necessary  correlative  of  "  Father,"  is 
known.  And  thinking  patiently  a  little  further,  we  shall 
see  that  human  language  could  not  so  well  represent 
these  infinite  realities  as  by  using  the  same  term, 
"  Father,"  sometimes  for  the  absolute  Godhead,  and 
sometimes  for  that  relative  paternal  Person  in  the 


372  LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND    COMFORT   FOB   MAN 

Godhead  brought  to  view  only  when  the  Son  and  the 
Spirit  appear  ;  as  also  by  using  the  term  "  Son  "  some 
times  for  the  condescending  and  accommodated  nature 
of  Christ  in  the  flesh,  "  tempted  like  as  we  are,"  and 
sometimes  for  the  Christ  who  is  "  the  same  yesterday, 
to-day,  and  forever,"  "  in  whom  dwelleth  all  the  ful 
ness  (pleroma)  of  the  Godhead."  The  qualities  of 
the  unutterable,  deific  substance  are  present  in  each. 
Christ  Jesus,  as  we  imperfectly  say,  brings  God  near  to 
us.*  So  that  the  suspicion  that  any  homage,  reverence, 
gratitude,  worship,  paid  to  the  Son  is  so  much  taken 
away  from  the  Father  will  instantly  betray  its  origin, 
as  arising  in  another  conception  of  the  whole  subject. 
To  the  Trinitarian,  as  to  Christ  himself,  it  is  impossible. 
"  That  all  men  should  honor  the  Son  even  as  they  honor 
the  Father.  He  that  honoreth  not  the  Son,  honoreth 
not  the  Father  which  hath  sent  him."  f 


*  "  The  Son  of  God  became  incarnate  in  order  that  man  might  have 
a  way  to  the  God  of  man  through  the  Man-God."  —  ST.  AUGUSTINE'S 
"  City  of  God." 

t  Olshausen's  exposition  of  our  text  may,  perhaps,  furnish  some  assist 
ance  to  a  willing  apprehension  of  it ;  and  we  quote  from  it  at  some  length. 
"  But  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  Saviour  does  not  here  give  the  name 
of  God  directly,  but  the  names  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  as  the 
exalted  object  to  which  the  votary  of  baptism  becomes  pledged.  This  is 
the  only  passage  in  the  Gospels  in  which  the  Lord  himself  names  the 
Three  Divine  persons  together.  In  many  passages  the  Saviour,  it  is  true, 
describes  both  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost  individually  as  Divine  person 
alities.  Here,  however,  they  appear  together,  and  are  styled  in  common 
the  object  to  which  believers  bind  themselves  by  baptism.  The  elements 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  are  thus  given  in  Christ's  identical  words. 
But  the  dogma  is  presented  in  an  entirely  undeveloped  form,  and  the  un 
folding  of  the  mystery  is  committed  to  the  scientific  activity  of  the  Church. 
The  established  doctrine  of  the  Church  on  this  subject  is  essentially  that  of 
the  Bible  also,  but  the  symbolically  derived  term  Person  involves  a  degree 
of  inconvenience,  and  may  easily  lead  to  error.  Human  language,  how- 


IN  THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  873 

Consistent,  simple,  and  sublime  as  this  ancient  and 
prevailing  doctrine  is  thus  made  to  appear  to  us,  it  is 
none  the  less  a  mystery  offered  to  faith,  on  faith's  own 
evidence.  It  is  obvious  that  most  of  those  difficulties 
which  puzzle  the  mind  in  attempting  to  grasp  it  spring 
from  some  form  of  our  notions  of  personality.  Hence 
it  is  pertinent  to  remember  that,  strictly  speaking,  per 
sonality  is  a  human  conception,  applicable  to  God  at  all 
only  by  an  extreme  liberty,  and  not  at  all  competent  to 
include  the  measures  of  Infinitude  ;  and  that  this  is  so 
generally  held  by  all  Trinitarian  scholars  that  any  at 
tempt  to  press  them  into  embarrassment  by  the  consid- 

ever,  furnishes  no  expression  by  which  the  connection  between  a  unity  of 
essence  with  an  independence  of  consciousness  in  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit 
can  be  more  appropriately  indicated.  We  cannot  therefore  charge  the 
teachers  of  the  Church  with  error  because  they  have  made  choice  of  this 
expression.  "We  can  only  lament  the  imperfection  of  human  language, 
which  renders  it  inadequate  to  designate  the  most  exalted  and  absolute 
relations  which  arc  clearly  comprehensible  to  the  purified  reason  only  by 
precise  ideas  and  words  corresponding  to  them.  The  chief  error  to  which 
the  word  '  Person  '  leads,  and  which  has  constantly  been  opposed  by  all 
the  more  profound  teachers  of  the  Church,  and  especially  by  Augustine,  in 
his  acute  and  profound  work  on  the  subject  of  the  Trinity,  is  this.  We 
are  led  by  it  to  conceive  of  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit  as  locally  or  mechani 
cally  distinct  from  one  another,  whilst  we  should  view  them  as  livingly 
interpenetrating  one  another.  To  this  view  we  may  advantageously  op 
pose  whatever  there  is  of  truth  in  Sabellianism  (which  rightly  recognizes 
this  unity  in  the  existence  of  the  Deity),  yet  without  adopting  at  the  same 
time  its  erroneous  denial  of  the  individual  independency  of  consciousness 
in  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit.  The  only  means  we  possess  for  illustrating  the 
unity  of  the  essence,  and  the  severalty  of  consciousness  in  the  Godhead, 
consists  in  the  corresponding  analogy  which  we  find  in  the  spiritual  nature 
of  man,  the  image  of  God.  As  in  man  there  is  not  only  spiritual  being, 
but  also  the  knowledge  of  that  being,  so  also  in  the  Divine  nature,  if  we 
apprehend  it  as  a  living  God,  not  as  a  dead  notion,  we  must  suppose  both 
being  and  the  knowledge  of  its  peculiar  being.  This  knowledge  which 
God  possesses  of  himself  is  designated  as  the  Son :  in  him  dwells  the 
Father  himself,  and  through  him  effects  everything  that  he  does  effect. 


374  LIFE, 

eration  now  before  us  is  nugatory  to  the  last  degree.  It 
is  now  as  commonly  admitted  by  the  highest  philosophy 
as  it  is  cheerfully  confessed  by  religious  humility,  that 
a  proper,  intellectual  conception  of  the  personality  of  an 
Infinite  Being  is  impossible.  Yet  it  graciously  pleases 
our  Heavenly  Father  to  show  himself  to  his  children, 
as  we  are  soon  to  see  more  fully,  in  a  personal  charac 
ter.  Nothing  in  all  our  religion  is  so  precious  and  so 
powerful  as  this  manifestation.  We  are  taught,  and  we 
all  believe,  that  God  absolute  is  a  being  who  has  no  form, 
motion,  place,  measure,  color,  and  never  literally  thinks, 
reasons,  remembers,  plans,  considers,  or  believes.  Yet 

But,  as  all  the  powers  of  the  Father  concentrate  themselves,  as  it  were,  in 
his  self-consciousness,  so  do  they  also  continually  revert  from  the  Son  to 
their  primary  source,  the  Father,  and  this  return  is  designated  as  the  Holy 
Ghost.  This  view  explains  the  phraseology  of  Scripture,  where  it  is  said 
that  '  the  Father  draws  to  the  Son/  but,  '  the  Son  leads,  in  the  Holy 
Ghost,  back  again  to  the  Father.'  '  All  knowledge  of  God  proceeds 
from  the  Father,  as  absolute  power,  through  the  Son,  as  perfect  love,  to  the 
Holy  Ghost,  as  complete  holiness.  But,  regarded  conversely,  the  Holy 
Ghost  leads  back  directly  to  the  Father,  so  that  the  end  again  issues  in  the 
beginning/  And  thus  in  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  is  represented  the 
eternal  being  of  God  in  its  essential,  internal  movement  and  interaction. 
To  apprehend,  however,  the  idea  of  the  individual  as  something  limited  and 
bounded  within  itself,  and  totally  separated  from  all  other  spiritual  life, 
would  be  the  very  error  which  has  been  already  pointed  out ;  and  the 
Scriptures,  in  their  entire  mode  of  expression,  show  that  in  this  sense  it 
apprehends  neither  the  Son  nor  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a  person.  The  Son, 
indeed,  appears  individualized  in  the  person  of  Jesus,  but  he  labors  by 
regeneration  to  transform  all  humanity  into  his  own  nature,  on  which 
account  the  whole  Church  is  simply  called  Christ  (1  Cor.  xii.  12);  and 
the  Holy  Ghost  also  appears  shed  abroad  in  the  hearts  of  all  believers, 
like  the  Father,  who  is  omnipresent  throughout  the  whole  universe.  As, 
therefore,  the  consciousness  of  God  in  itself  can  be  conceived  of  only  as 
all-comprehending,  so  also  must  the  notion  of  Person,  under  the  true  idea 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  be  understood  in  an  all-comprehensive 
sense.  By  this  means  a  great  deal  of  the  difficulty  which,  from  the  earli 
est  times,  has  surrounded  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  will  be  obviated." 


IN   THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  375 

what  thought  have  we  which  is  absolutely  able  to  clear 
itself  of  these  limitations,  and  still  hold  fast  the  notion 
of  a  properly  personal  existence  ?  None  the  less  are  we 
so  made  under  Christ  as  by  a  secret  force  of  conviction 
to  believe  and  affirm  that  God  is  both  Infinite  and  a 
Person.  None  the  less  do  our  Christian  Scriptures  con 
tinually  draw  up  and  lead  on  our  souls  to  a  loftier  and 
clearer  communion  with  our  God  by  setting  him  before 
us,  heart  to  heart,  through  human  relations  and  images, 
as  having  in  him,  and  towards  us,  that  which  answers  to 
thoughts,  emotions,  and  experiences  in  ourselves.  The 
inference  is  not  remote  nor  obscure.  We  have  no  more 
reason  to  disbelieve  God's  declared  Tri-unity,  on  the 
score  of  any  inadequacy  in  our  rational  conceptions,  of 
it,  than  we  have  to  disbelieve  his  infinite  personality. 
We  know  both  only  in  revelation,  where  the  one  is  dis 
closed  in  immediate  connection  with  the  other.  What 
we  have  to  do  is  to  be  sure  we  do  not  either  offend  re 
ligious  reverence,  nor  assert  a  literal  tri-theism,  by  fast 
ening  on  a  metaphysical  idea  of  persons.*  "  As  we  can 
say  that  God  is  a  Person  without  any  real  denial  of  his 
infinity,  so  we  can  say  that  he  is  three  Persons  without 
any  breach  of  his  unity."  A  great  deal  of  our  common 
allegation  of  "  mystery  "  as  an  objection  to  believing  is 
the  most  shallow  self-illusion.  In  this  parlance,  mystery 

*  So  says  Dr.  Taylor,  "  Who  docs  not  know  that  Trinitarians  claim,  in 
the  statement  of  their  doctrine,  to  use  the  terms  being  and  person,  not  in 
their  ordinary,  but  in  a  peculiar  meaning,  demanded  by  the  nature  of  the 
subject  ?  "  A  considerable  part  of  his  course  of  lectures  on  the  Trinity  is 
devoted  to  an  elucidation  of  this  peculiarity.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  is  by 
a  defect  of  information,  and  not  of  candor,  that,  in  the  face  of  similar  state 
ments  from  Bishop  Butler,  Whately,  Neander,  and  other  leading  writers 
on  the  Trinitarian  side,  their  opponents  persevere  in  overlooking  the  fact 
that  any  such  distinction  is  made. 
32 


376         LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT  FOR  MAN 

means  something  like  a  compound  of  the  unfamiliar 
and  the  unwelcome.  But  we  live  amidst  mysteries, 
keep  house  with  them,  walk  over  them,  lie  down  and 
rise  up  with  them,  are  folded  in  by  them,  are  born  out 
of  them,  breathe  them,  and  die  into  them.  When  we 
have  told  ourselves  how  the  tree  that  shades  us  gets  out 
of  the  seed  blown  from  our  finger's  end,  or  when  we 
have  explained  how  one  person  influences  another  with 
out  sight  or  touch,  we  may  perhaps  be  emboldened  to 
make  our  comprehension  the  criterion  of  the  verities  of 
God.* 


*  To  refer  to  Mr.  Hansel's  very  full  and  striking  illustrations  and  demon 
strations  of  the  general  principle  that  the  human  consciousness  is  unequal 
to  the  speculative  conception  of  a  Being  at  once  absolute,  infinite,  and  per 
sonal,  while  yet  faith  in  such  a  Being  is  the  soul's  privilege  and  duty,  does 
not  involve  an  assent  to  all  the  conclusions  he  reaches  in  the  same  remark 
able  course  of  reasoning,  much  less  to  all  those  which  impetuous  and 
unfair  critics  have  attributed  to  him.  That  Sir  William.  Hamilton's  view 
of  the  Philosophy  of  the  Unconditioned,  and  his  pupil's,  of  the  Limits  of 
Religious  Thought,  contain  original  ideas  which  are  calculated,  with 
whatever  modifications,  to  encourage  the  coming  generation  in  Scriptural 
convictions  of  the  Divine  Nature,  is  what  nothing  but  either  the  Rational 
ism  or  the  Dogmatism  which  they  both  so  powerfully  assail  can  venture 
to  deny. 

"  The  objection,  '  How  can  the  One  be  many,  or  the  many  one  ? '  is  so 
far  from  telling  with  peculiar  force  against  the  catholic  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Trinity,  that  it  has  precisely  the  same  power  or  want  of  power, 
and  may  be  urged  with  precisely  the  same  effect  or  want  of  effect  against 
any  conception,  theological  or  philosophical,  in  which  we  may  attempt  to 
represent  the  Divine  Nature  and  attributes  as  infinite,  or  indeed  to  ex 
hibit  the  infinite  at  all."  <f  How  can  there  be  a  variety  of  attributes,  each 
infinite  in  its  kind,  and  yet  all  together  constituting  but  one  Infinite? 
or  how,  on  the  other  hand,  can  the  Infinite  be  conceived  as  existing  with 
out  diversity  at  all  ?  "  "  The  doctrine  of  the  Son  of  God,  begotten  of 
the  Father,  and  yet  co-eternal  with  the  Father,  is  in  no  wise  more  or  less 
comprehensible  by  human  reason  than  the  relation  between  the  Divine 
essence  and  its  attributes."  "If  there  is  sufficient  evidence,  on  other 
grounds,  to  show  that  the  Scripture,  in  which  this  doctrine  is  contained, 


IN   THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  377 

If,  however,  there  are  any  who  will  insist  on  the  sup 
ports  of  intellectual  consent,  let  them  be  so  far  met  by 
the  facts  of  history  as  to  be  obliged  to  own  where  the 
real  strength  of  men's  thought  has  deposited  the  power 
of  its  testimony.  Against  all  pretences  of  rational  ad 
vantage  or  literary  patronage,  let  it  be  freely  said  that 
this  doctrine  has  been  cordially  accepted,  and  in  count 
less  illustrious  instances  zealously  advocated,  by  the 
vast  majority  of  the  logicians,  philosophers,  statesmen, 
men  of  the  largest  dialectic  and  thinking  energy,  of  the 
keenest  penetration  and  most  comprehensive  faculty  of 
generalization,  that  have  lived  in  Christendom  :  and  let 
the  fact  stand  for  what  it  is  worth,  and  persuade  whom 
it  will.  Respectable  cases  of  exception  can,  it  is  true, 
be  readily  referred  to.  Constitutional  biases,  or  those 
of  education,  the  passion  for  difference  or  innovation, 
inevitable  reactions  from  extreme  positions; — all  these 
have  occasioned  an  anti-Trinitarian  party,  including 
examples  of  sincere,  able,  honorable  dissent  from  the 

is  a  revelation  from  God,  the  doctrine  itself  must  be  unconditionally  re 
ceived,  not  as  reasonable  nor  as  unreasonable,  but  as  Scriptural.  If  there 
is  not  such  evidence,  the  doctrine  itself  will  lack  its  proper  support ;  but 
the  reason  which  rejects  it  is  utterly  incompetent  to  substitute  any  other 
representation  in  its  place."  "  Let  religion  begin  where  it  will,  it  must 
begin  with  that  which  is  above  reason."  "  We  may  seek  as  we  will  for 
a  religion  within  the  limits  of  the  bare  reason,  and  we  shall  not  find  it, 
simply  because  no  such  thing  exists,"  £c.,  &c.  —  HANSEL'S  Bampton 
Lectures,  VI. 

"  But  if  he  denies  that  three  can  be  predicated  of  one,  and  one  of  three, 
let  him  allow  that  there  is  something  in  God  Avhich  his  intellect  cannot 
penetrate,  and  let  him  not  compare  the  nature  of  God,  which  is  above  all 
things  free  from  all  condition  of  place  and  time  and  composition  of  parts, 
with  things  which  are  confined  to  place  and  time,  or  composed  of  parts  ; 
but  let  him  believe  that  there  is  something,  in  that  nature,  which  cannot  be 
in  those  things,  and  let  him  acquiesce  in  Christian  authority,  and  not  dis 
pute  against  it."  —  ANSELM. 


378         LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND    COMFORT   FOR  MAN 

accepted  belief  of  the  Church.  But  when  we  look  from 
these  we  emerge  into  an  almost  boundless  field  of  the 
eminent  names  of  moral  and  intellectual  science,  his 
tory,  theology,  and  general  Christian  letters,  all  un- 
doubting  in  that  article  of  faith  of  which  one  of  their 
number,  Coleridge,  says,  "  The  article  of  Trinity  is 
religion,  is  reason,  and  its  universal  formula ;  "  and 
another,  Neander,  "It  is  the  fundamental  article  of  the 
Christian  faith,  —  the  essential  contents  of  Christianity 
summed  up  in  brief."  The  ascendant  school  of  philo 
sophical  thought  to-day  is  unequivocally  Trinitarian. 
Even  the  most  imperial  intellects  of  unchristianized 
antiquity  recognized  a  truth  corresponding  to  this  as 
a  necessity  of  the  great  laws  of  being,  —  Plato  speaking 
as  distinctly  in  the  belief  of  a  Trinity  as  Aristotle  in 
that  of  the  Unity, — the  "One  Lord  who  ordaincth  all 
things."  Not  much  stress  can  be  laid  on  any  mere  sci 
entific  manipulation  of  a  truth  so  dependent  on  spiritual 
revelations  as  this.  And  yet  it  may  be  something,. — 
especially  as  against  a  contrary  assertion,  —  to  see  that 
where  the  heart  is  made  ready  for  it,  the  ablest  heads 
have  been  just  as  willing  to  credit  it  as  the  simplest.* 

*  Possibly  there  may  be  some  reader  of  these  pages  who  will  be  the 
more  favorably  inclined  to  admit  the  spirit  of  this  paragraph  for  finding  it 
uttered  from  a  soul  so  clear-sighted,  so  purged  of  all  cant  or  hearsay 
notions,  of  all  make-believe  and  deference  to  mere  tradition,  so  apprecia 
tive  and  large  in  sympathy,  and  so  widely  loved  and  trusted,  as  Rev.  F.  "W. 
Robertson.  In  several  of  his  sermons  he  avows  his  faith  that  in  God  there 
are  "  three  distinct  personalities,  consciousnesses,  yet  all  these  three  are 
one ;  "  that  "  Trinitarianism  is  true."  He  also  pleads  :  "  There  are  those 
who  are  inclined  to  sneer  at  the  Trinitarian  ;  those  to  whom  the  doctrine 
appears  merely  a  contradiction,  a  puzzle,  an  entangled,  labyrinthine  enigma 
in  which  there  is  no  meaning  whatever.  But  let  all  such  remember  that, 
though  the  doctrine  may  appear  to  them  absurd,  because  they  have  not  the 
proper  conception  of  it,  some  of  the  profoundest  thinkers  and  some  of  the 


IN   THE  DIVINE   TRINITY.  379 

It  would  seem,  then,  to  require  some  audacity  to  toss 
about  such  charges  as  "  absurdity,"  "  self-contradiction," 
"  impossibility,"  "  scholastic  figment,"  and  others  even 
more  opprobrious,  as  fitted  to  a  faith  on  the  most  un 
speakably  momentous  and  affecting  of  the  themes  of 
thought,  deliberately  adopted  and  earnestly  expounded 
by  nine  tenths  of  those  master-minds  whose  logic  and 
learning  have  been  applied  to  the  subject  at  all.  What 
shall  be  said  of  the  mental  proportions  of  men  who  per 
sist  in  the  dull  fallacy  of  imputing  to  believers  in  the 
Trinity  of  "  God,  who  is  a  Spirit,"  the  notion  of  an 
arithmetic  relation,  with  the  complacent  inference  that 
this  vital  and  everlasting  confession  of  Christendom  is 
to  be  silenced  or  dispossessed  by  a  frivolous  allusion  to 
mathematical  incompatibilities  ?  Can  it  never  be  con 
sidered  that,  when  all  our  current  ideas  are  sifted  and 
analyzed,  every  attribute  and  act  of  the  Self-existent 
One  is  exactly  as  inexplicable  to  us  as  his  Threeness  ?  * 

holiest  spirits  among  mankind  have  believed  in  this  doctrine,  have  clung 
to  it  as  a  matter  of  life  or  death.  Let  them  be  assured  of  this,  that,  wheth 
er  the  doctrine  be  true  or  false,  it  is  not  necessarily  a  doctrine  self-contra 
dictory.  Let  them  be  assured  of  this  in  all  modesty,  that  such  men  never 
could  have  held  it  unless  there  was  latent  in  it  a  deep  truth,  perchance  the 
truth  of  God." 

*  When  the  philosophical  line  of  investigation  is  carried  out  still  fur 
ther,  it  will  doubtless  be  made  to  appear,  as  ancient  and  modern  thinkers 
have  more  than  once  intimated,  that  it  is  three,  not  less,  not  more,  which, 
in  the  nature  of  numbers  and  of  forms,  admits  the  greatest  relative  combi 
nation  of  simplicity  and  variety,  and  especially  meets  the  abstract  condi 
tions  of  the  ontological  problem.  Some  minds  are  also  able  to  hold  the 
doctrine  in  such  a  way  as  to  find  a  comforting  relief  in  it  from  a  certain 
cheerless  impression  of  solitude  in  Deity,  gaining  the  idea,  as  they  think, 
of  a  sharing  of  counsels,  a  reciprocity  of  affections,  and  a  divine  joy  of 
participated,  reflected,  and  so  intensified  beatitude,  as  a  part  of  the  con 
ception  of  Trinity  in  Unity.  But  these  are  speculations  beyond  the 
Bible. 

32* 


380         LIFE,   SALTATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOR  MAN 

Of  quite  a  different  character  is  the  objection  some 
times  alleged  against  the  doctrine,  that  it  belongs  to  a 
class  of  opinions  which  are  of  no  practical  consequence, 
and  which  may  be  received  or  rejected  with  equal  un 
concern,  provided  men  are  careful  to  maintain  a  correct 
conduct.  Granted  that  this  cheap  estimate  borrows 
some  plausibility  from  dogmatic  exaggerations  and  in 
tolerant  pretensions  too  often  associated  with  the  advo 
cacy  of  the  most  important  ideas,  —  partly  because  they 
are  important.  Yet  when  we  are  pointed  by  doctrinal 
indifferentism  to  right  living  as  a  proof  of  the  insignifi 
cance  of  right  believing,  we  have  to  ask  some  questions 
in  return.  How  are  we  to  achieve  that  not  altogether 
easy  or  every-day  matter,  right  living  ?  What  are  the 
powers,  and  whence  come  they  ?  Is  it  living  rightly  to 
live  ignoring  or  denying  realities  which  our  God  has 
graciously  unveiled,  by  costly  revelations,  touching  his 
own  nature  and  our  salvation  ?  Is  it  living  rightly  to 
fail  of  gratitude  to  Divine  benefactors,  as  Divine,  with 
holding  praise  from  the  Son  and  the  Spirit,  into  whom 
we  are  bidden  to  be  baptized  ?  Do  almsgivings,  kind 
nesses,  moral  integrities,  noble  as  they  are  when  spring 
ing  from  the  sacred  stock  of  true  faith,  release  us  from 
"  coming  to  Christ,"  "  receiving  the  Holy  Ghost,"  trust 
ing  in  the  Cross,  and  walking  humbly  with  our  God  ? 
Or,  since  the  boldest  egotism  in  any  man  will  hardly 
pretend  that  his  own  life  is  now  "  right,"  has  ever  been 
"  right,"  or  ever  will  be  "  right,"  or  otherwise  than  ter 
ribly  wrong,  is  it  not  a  very  reasonable  thing,  and  the 
very  first  thing,  for  a  soul  in  this  position  of  conscious 
weakness,  guilt,  and  shame,  to  be  searching  earnestly 
after  the  Divine  relief  ?  Following  in  the  path  of  these 
inquiries,  let  us  notice  some  of  the  practical  fruits  of 


IN  THE  DIVINE  TRINITY.  381 

the  doctrine  before  us,  especially  in  furnishing  a  posi 
tive  foundation  for  piety,  the  way  of  deliverance  from 
evil,  and  an  animating  inspiration  to  Christian  service. 

I.  The  Tri-unity  of  God  appears  to  be  the  necessary 
means  of  manifesting  and  supporting  in  the  mind  of  our 
Race  a  faith  in  the  true  personality  of  God,  —  a  faith 
indispensable  to  the  foundation  and  to  the  vital  opera 
tion  of  Christianity.  The  impossibility  of  a  speculative 
cognition  of  the  infinite  personality  has  already  been 
adverted  to,  and  apart  from  that,  neither  the  resources 
of  philosophy  nor  the  demonstrations  of  history  encour 
age  us  to  believe  that  anything  like  a  Christian  mono 
theism  could  keep  its  place  in  the  world  from  generation 
to  generation,  through  all  the  divergencies  of  speculation, 
and  the  degradations  of  materialism,  at  least  beyond  the 
limits  of  direct  manifestations  like  those  granted  to  the 
Hebrews,  save  by  the  revelation  of  God  as  One  in  Three 
and  Three  in  One.  The  actual  departures  from  this 
faith  have  been  in  two  directions.  On  one  side,  the 
religious  sentiment,  subjected  to  a  process  of  intel 
lectual  generalization,  has  resulted  in  Pantheism.  God 
ceases  to  be  a  person.  Everything  is  God,  and  God  is 
everything.  We  are  ourselves  a  part  of  him,  and  in 
such  a  sense  that  he  would  not  be  complete  without  us  : 
we  are  not  subjects  of  his  personal  will,  created,  di 
rected,  swayed,  led,  punished,  saved  by  the  act  of  that 
personal  will  toward  us,  lying  very  humble  before  the 
supreme  majesty  of  his  infinite  holiness,  or  walking  in 
the  light  of  his  conscious  love,  and  ascribing  all  that  is 
good  and  great  on  earth,  "  not  unto  us,"  but  to  his  per 
sonal  power.  We  are  rather  partners  in  his  omnipo 
tence.  We  are  in  him,  not  by  faith  or  spiritual  posses 
sion,  but  as  setting  up  rights.  So  with  the  universe. 


382          LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOR  MAN 

Responsibility  ceases.  Prayer  is  absurd.  Worship  is  a 
lost  idea,  even  if  the  form  survives  by  force  of  old 
tradition  or  of  better  instincts  that  refuse  to  be  killed 
by  a  domineering  and  perverted  understanding.  The 
heart  of  faith  is  chilled.  Conscience  is  systematically 
divested  of  the  sense  of  personal  retribution.  Sorrow 
has  no  comforter.  Nature  is  admired,  and  this  admi 
ration  of  her  beauty  and  order  is  called  religion. 
All  the  ten  thousand  blessed  influences  which  attend 
the  feeling  of  religious  dependence  gradually  sink  away, 
and  a  poor,  restless,  unsatisfied,  self-asserting  conceit 
takes  their  place. 

On  the  other  side,  the  religious  sentiment,  subjected 
to  a  process  of  sensual  limitation,  results  in  some  form 
of  idolatry.  Something  less  than  God  is  taken  for  God, 
and  worshipped  as  God.  It  may  not  be  a  visible  object. 
Paganism  is  not  confined  to  fetichism  and  image-wor 
ship.  Some  man,  some  hero,  some  fabulous  story  of  a 
man,  or  some  conception  of  humanity  in  a  single  indi 
vidual  indefinitely  enlarged,  is  set  in  God's  throne  and 
adored. 

These  two  errors  have  divided  the  unchristianized 
world  between  them.  They  do  still.  Either  the  person 
ality  of  God  is  sacrificed  to  the  infinity,  or  the  infin 
ity  is  sacrificed  to  the  personality.  In  the  former  case, 
men  may  imagine  they  recognize  an  Infinite  Being ; 
but  it  is  only  an  abstraction,  or  a  principle,  or  a  bundle 
of  laws,  or  a  loose  mass  of  sequences  and  phenomena, 
from  which  the  attribute  of  infinity  itself  as  well  as  of 
personal  consciousness  is  soon  found  to  have  ebbed 
away.  In  the  latter  case,  the  innate  longing  for  a 
veritable  Divine  Person,  with  personal  traits  answering 
to  ours,  may  be  met ;  but  it  will  soon  begin  to  appear 


IN   THE   DIVINE  TRINITY.  383 

that,  though  a  Person  remains,  the  Eternal  and  Uncre 
ated  and  Almighty  God  of  Glory  is  gone.  The  ad 
vancement  of  learning,  the  scientific  mastery  of  out 
ward  nature,  and  other  characteristics  of  modern  times, 
have  shifted  the  danger  very  largely  from  the  latter  to 
the  former  of  these  tendencies,  as  every  thinking  mind 
must  see,  and  as  so  many  tongues  are  saying.  But 
probably  both  the  errors  spring  from  desires  and  de 
mands  of  man's  nature  which  in  themselves  are  right. 
This  human  soul  will  ever  seek  in  some  way  to  identify 
God  with  the  humanity  in  which  it  shares.  This 
human  mind,  exploring  the  method  and  magnificence  of 
the  external  universe,  will  ever  seek  to  identify  God 
with  the  different  works  of  his  hand.  Or,  to  state  the 
matter  in  different  relations,  despairing  to  conceive  of 
personality  without  limitation,  some  men  rush  over  to 
Pantheism.  Others,  despairing  of  retaining  a  Deity  near 
enough  for  love  and  sympathy  who  is  literally  infinite, 
stop  short  with  a  deity  who  is  not  God. 

These  implanted  wants  are  wonderfully  satisfied  in 
the  Divine  Trinity.  In  the  Absolute  and  one  only  God 
head,  all  man's  highest,  purest,  largest,  most  far-reach 
ing  conceptions,  stretching  away  into  the  regions  of 
Infinitude,  Eternity,  Almightiness,  have  their  full  and 
complete  exercise.  In  the  incarnate  Christ,  taking  up 
our  humanity,  the  longing  for  a  personal,  sympathizing, 
companionable  Deity,  is  blessedly  answered,  —  and  yet 
God  is  there  ;  there  is  no  loss  of  the  essential  and  veri 
table  Deity.  In  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  natural  desire  of 
the  devout  mind  to  connect  God  with  all  the  operations 
of  the  present  world,  the  processes  of  creation,  the  wel 
fare,  renewal,  revolutions,  sanctification,  of  the  Human 
Family,  finds  its  lawful  verification.  If  they  only  would, 


384          LIFE,   AND   SALVATION,    COMFORT   FOR   MAN 

the  reverent  Pantheist,  humanitarian,  naturalist  might 
here,  in  the  beauty  and  symmetry  and  fulness  of  the 
Gospel  doctrine,  obtain  the  true  and  grand  interpreta 
tion  of  their  several  yearnings,  see  their  partial  and 
fragmentary  views  of  the  Divine  filled  out,  and  their 
mistakes  corrected.  For  the  dangers  of  the  separate 
systems  are  here  forestalled.  If  in  the  ardent  attach 
ment  to  the  historical  Christ,  the  "  Word  made  flesh," 
the  disciple  is  tempted  to  deny  the  Unseen  and  Ineffa 
ble,  to  forget  that  no  man  hath  in  a  complete  sense 
"  seen  God  at  any  time,"  this  doctrine  holds  ever  up 
before  him  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  and  Sav 
iour,  from  whom  the  Son  comes  eternally  forth.  If, 
again,  we  incline  to  let  our  speculations  wander  in  the 
cold  and  rare  atmosphere  of  a  purely  deific  energy,  join 
ing  the  deistic  multitude  so  easily  misled  by  the  auda 
cities  and  flatteries  of  a  false  philosophy,  we  are  forth 
with  brought  back  to  the  warm  and  cheerful  household 
of  Faith  by  beholding  the  face  of  the  Gracious  Shep 
herd  and  Bishop  of  our  Souls,  and  being  assured  that 
whoso  hath  seen  Him  hath  seen  the  Father,  Or  if  thus 
fixing  our  inward  gaze  either  on  the  Infinite  above,  or 
on  the  Jesus  of  Nazareth  and  of  history,  we  come  to 
locate  our  Lord  only  in  the  heights,  or  in  the  limited 
enclosures  and  events  of  a  visible  Messiahship,  then  we 
are  taken  again  into  the  juster  thought  of  the  New 
Testament ;  the  Holy  Ghost  is  witnessed  in  His  ever 
lasting  and  blessed  goings  forth  into  the  world  of  men 
to  regenerate  and  comfort  it,  the  Paraclete  proceedeth 
ever  from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  thus  taking  up  and 
including  the  powers  of  the  Incarnation,  —  not  an  im 
palpable  essence  or  airy  influence,  but  the  third  and 
living  person  of  the  ever-blessed  and  glorious  Trinity. 


IN   THE   DIVINE  TRINITY.  385 

The  adorable  mystery  becomes  a  practical  and  precious 
fact  to  the  toiling  and  praying  soul.  The  baffled  intel 
lect  rests  from  the  aimless  beating  of  its  wings,  and 
while  it  discovers  fields  of  boundless  contemplation  for 
the  expansion  of  all  its  powers,  abides  in  the  peace  of 
that  holy  benediction,  —  "  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  love  of  God,  and  the  fellowship  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  be  with  us  all  evermore." 

Nor  have  we  any  record  of  even  the  more  negative 
of  these  effects,  namely,  the  escape  from  the  pantheistic 
and  the  mythologic  paganism,  nor  any  reason  to  suppose 
that  would  take  place,  on  any  extended  scale,  in  the 
religious  experience  of  mankind  independently  of  this 
doctrine.  Christendom  furnishes  the  only  instance  of 
this  security,  and  Christendom  has  been  Trinitarian. 
If  the  Christian  conception  of  God's  personality  has  sur 
vived  in  minds  or  localities  or  periods  where  the  Trinity 
has  been  denied,  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  such 
instances  the  conservative  energies  of  the  surrounding 
and  general  belief  always  exert  a  considerable  power. 
The  logical  consequences  of  a  doctrinal  denial  do  not 
appear  at  once ;  they  are  often  largely  counteracted, 
even  where  the  denial  is  not  revoked.  But  it  cer 
tainly  is  a  fair  and  serious  question  whether  the 
denial  of  this  particular  doctrine  has  not  carried, 
at  least  in  a  striking  proximity  and  association  with 
it,  a  special  movement  toward  the  extremes  of  deistic, 
pantheistic,  and  rationalistic  conclusions.  Bereaved  of 
their  real  Lord,  men  grope  after  some  vague,  subli 
mated  entity,  like  Brahma,  "  sleeping  on  eternity  and 
the  stars,"  or  "literary  freethinkers  begin  to  speak 
familiarly  of  6  the  gods,'  repairing  their  loss  of  a  Trin 
ity  by  embracing  a  classic  Pantheon." 


386          LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOR  MAN 

II.  The  Trinity  of  God  is  the  necessary  groundwork 
of  the  whole  Scripture  doctrine  of  the  atonement  for 
sin,  or  the  reconciliation  between  God  and  man.  Under 
the  former  head,  man  has  been  regarded  in  his  normal 
conditions,  needing  a  development  through  Divine  grace 
and  worship,  irrespective  of  the  fact  of  his  lapse  and 
bondage  under  evil.  But  transgression  has  introduced, 
from  the  beginning,  a  new  element  and  a  new  relation. 
Sin  is  not  an  act  only,  but  a  state,  a  state  of  the  indi 
vidual  and  a  state  of  the  race.  Hence  the  great  need 
of  the  race  was  that  God  should  come  into  it  anew  in 
a  quickening,  healing,  life-giving,  personal  mediation. 
Lost  humanity  was  to  be  restored,  how  plainly  !  only 
by  an  Incarnation  of  God  himself  in  the  Son,  making 
a  perfect  union  of  it  with  his  own  spirit  by  the  "  Word 
made  flesh." 

One  of  the  chief  practical  dangers  of  our  life,  as  well 
as  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  laxity,  confusion,  and  weak 
ness  to  theology,  is  that  we  are  so  apt  to  contemplate 
the  disorder,  mischief,  and  enormity  of  sin  only  from 
our  human  point,  with  only  natural  and  immediate 
notions  of  its  character  and  effects,  without  estimating 
its  deadly  antagonism  to  the  holiness  of  the  Almighty, 
the  good  of  all  that  live,  the  integrity  and  peace  of  the 
universe.  There  never  can  be  a  religion  of  vitality  and 
commanding  majesty,  where  enfeebled  conceptions  pre 
vail  of  those  two  primal  and  terribly  hostile  forces,  — 
the  sovereign  holiness  of  God  and  the  wicked  will  of  man. 
The  depth  of  that  wickedness,  the  all-pervading  taint  of 
ungrateful  iniquity,  the  unreasonableness  and  profanity 
of  disobedience  in  the  child  of  a  Parent  so  gracious  and 
so  good, — these  are  not  to  be  described,  nor  can  any 
adequate  and  lively  impression  of  them  be  made  except 


IN   THE  DIVINE   TRINITY.  387 

as  the  soul  is  startled  and  awakened  from  insensibility 
by  the  strong  touch  of  that  renewing  Spirit,  which  con- 
vinceth  of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment.  Yet 
it  would  seem  as  if  a  tolerable  degree  of  intelligence 
and  thoughtfulness  applied  to  the  simple  and  plain  con 
ditions  of  the  problem  might  so  discover  the  sanctity  of 
God's  immaculate  will,  the  venerableness  of  his  law, 
the  absolute  indispensableness  that  his  government 
should  stand  firm  and  unimpeachable,  in  the  sight 
of  all  his  subjects,  in  order  to  the  welfare,  stability, 
and  joy  of  his  whole  family  in  earth  and  heaven,  as  to 
remove  all  reluctance  at  receiving  the  sublime  demon 
strations  of  the  method  of  redemption  revealed  in  the 
Cross.  When  their  look  is  first  directed  to  the  lofty 
heights  and  purity  of  that  law,  and  then  to  the  utter 
ugliness  of  the  transgression,  men  avert  their  eyes  ; 
they  call  it  a  hard  and  gloomy  system.  Till  some  pro- 
founder  feeling  is  moved,  till  some  spiritual  sympathy  is 
kindled  with  the  whole  mercy  and  blessedness  of  the 
plan,  they  find  no  beauty  nor  loveliness  in  it  that  they 
should  desire  it ;  they  pronounce  it  harsh,  forbidding, 
strange ;  they  turn  away  to  what  they  consider  a  milder 
and  pleasanter  scheme.  But  hast  thou  not  learned  yet, 
0  sorrowing  man,  born  of  woman,  of  few  days  and  full 
of  trouble !  that  the  hard  and  sad  way  is  very  often  the 
short,  sure  way  to  comfort  and  light  ?  that  it  must  be 
hard  and  sad  only  because  thy  own  heart  is  hard,  and 
thy  sinfulness  is  sad  ?  Has  it  not  begun  to  dawn  on 
thy  soul  that  the  very  severity  and  terror  of  the  law  are 
the  stern  necessity  which  yields  afterwards  the  unutter 
able  peace  of  renunciation,  the  gladness  of  submission 
unequalled  by  all  the  gladness  of  self-will,  the  bliss  of 
reconciliation,  the  rest  of  faith?  Cheerful  views  are 

33 


388          LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOR  MAN 

views  that  bring  the  true  and  everlasting  cheer,  not 
those  that  cheat  us  with  the  image  of  a  fond  or  indul 
gent  deity,  too  soft-hearted  to  punish,  too  weak  to  exe 
cute  justice,  — views  that  cry  "  Peace  !  "  when  there  is 
no  peace,  only  to  leave  us  at  last  mocked  and  betrayed. 
Nothing  that  is  milder  than  God's  word  and  will  is  happy 
for  us  in  the  end.  Nothing  is  gained  by  winking  out  of 
sight  the  facts.  God's  way  is  the  brightest  way,  for  he 
is  perfect  love.  The  uniform  and  accordant  testimony 
of  the  millions  from  the  morning  hour  of  the  Church, 
who  have  believed  in  this  redemption  and  known  it  in 
their  experience,  is  that  it  brings  the  soul  to  joys  be 
yond  all  that  can  be  spoken  in  language,  beyond  all  the 
joys  they  had  ever  found  in  the  assurances  of  an  easier 
salvation,  and  a  more  indiscriminate  compassion.  Is 
that  testimony  nothing  ?  Would  to  God  it  might  be 
borne  in  upon  all  our  minds  by  his  own  Spirit,  how 
much  wiser,  how  much  more  cheerful,  is  the  strong 
piety  that  is  won  through  intense  and  painful  experi 
ences  of  the  real  contradiction  of  God's  will  against 
self-will,  creating  the  need  of  a  Divine  sacrifice,  than 
the  superficial  contentment  which  mistakes  the  benig 
nity  of  Providence  for  a  repeal  of  his  statutes,  and  mis 
interprets  all  his  promises  of  forgiveness  into  a  denial 
of  his  repeated  declarations  that  he  hateth  iniquity,  that 
his  wrath  abideth  on  the  impenitent,  and  that  the 
sinner  shall  not  stand  in  his  sight.  Forgiveness!  If 
our  God  were  the  yielding  and  ever-repealing  Lawgiver 
that  some  teachers  sedulously  represent  him,  he  would 
have  nothing  to  forgive  ! 

The  atoning  sacrifice  of  Christ  may  be  regarded 
either  in  relation  to  the  needs  of  the  individual  soul, 
or  in  relation  to  the  whole  paternal  and  royal  admin- 


IN   THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  389 

istration  of  the  government  of  God.  In  each  of  these 
relations  it  will  be  found  that  the  Divine  Tri-unity, 
including  the  actual  and  complete  divinity  of  the 
Redeemer  as  the  second  person  of  that  Tri-unity,  is 
the  secret  of  the  power. 

In  any  really  deep  Christian  experience,  the  great 
feeling  of  need,  the  energy  of  repentance,  the  agony  of 
conviction,  connects  itself  with  a  conscious  estrange 
ment  from  the  Heavenly  Father,  through  a  violation  of 
his  holy  and  merciful  law ;  not  merely  a  single  act  of 
sin ;  not  merely  a  scries  of  such  acts  ;  but  a  state  of  the 
nature  and  a  habit  of  the  life  ungratefully  and  wickedly 
separated  from  God.  Of  course,  so  long  as  there  is  a 
feeble  or  lax  sense  of  God's  holiness,  of  the  sanctity  of 
his  requirements,  of  the  exceeding  height  and  breadth 
and  length  of  his  commandments,  and  of  the  wide 
spread  mischief  and  unutterable  wrong  even  of  a  single 
infraction  of  it  sending  its  jar  of  discord  through  the 
spiritual  world  and  directly  offending  such  a  Being  as 
God  is,  so  long  this  piercing  and  bitter  conviction  will 
not  be  realized.  Some  lighter  and  easier  solution  than 
the  Cross,  therefore,  will  satisfy  the  mind,  or  seem  to 
satisfy  it,  till  a  deeper  movement  agitates  the  heart  and 
breaks  up  its  inmost  fountains.  Whenever  that  hour 
comes,  there  comes  with  it  a  cry  for  full  redemption, 
such  a  redemption  as  only  the  suffering  of  Him  who  is 
both  man  and  God  can  give.  The  different  theories  of 
Christ's  nature  and  sacrifice  appear  and  pass  before  the 
stricken  and  self-condemned  soul.  Is  Christ  a  consist 
ent  man  only,  a  brave  martyr,  a  glorious  instance  of  a 
well-finished  career,  meeting  an  inevitable  death  with 
exemplary  firmness  ?  But  what  is  that  to  a  sorrow  and 
remorse  like  this  ?  However  animating  to  other  moods, 


390          LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND    COMFORT   FOB  MAN 

after  the  alienated  conscience  is  reconciled  and  knows 
that  its  condemnation  is  blotted  out,  such  an  example 
can  now  be  only  an  aggravating  and  unattainable  vis 
ion,  mocking  the  disabled  and  disordered  will.  Besides, 
however  blameless  and  disinterested  the  death  of  Jesus 
may  be,  if  we  speak  of  human  firmness  or  courage, 
these  have  been  apparently  equalled,  as  has  often  been 
noticed,  by  other  sufferers.  The  scenes  of  Gethsemane 
and  Calvary  have  been  surpassed  in  the  mere  quality 
of  silent,  human  endurance,  more  than  once.  On  the 
humanitarian  hypothesis,  the  tears  and  prayers  and 
groans  and  shrinkings  of  the  "Lamb  of  God  who 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world"  sink  to  an  inferior 
place  in  the  victories  of  fortitude.  It  is  only  as  we 
find  there  the  nameless  and  inexpressible  anguish  of  a 
Divine  and  Infinite  Being,  bearing  the  iniquities  of  us 
all,  and  purposely  taking  up  all  the  tenderest  sensibili 
ties  of  our  ordinary  frame,  in  the  benevolent  mystery 
of  the  Incarnation,  that  the  signals  of  the  Passion  are 
lifted  into  any  genuine  honor.  Without  this,  they  are 
less  than  they  assume  to  be,  and  fail  even  of  respect. 
Nor  is  the  grand  want  supplied  by  supposing  the  Sav 
iour  to  be  exalted  into  some  superhuman  dignity  of 
endowment,  yet  remaining  only  a  creature  and  a  sub 
ject.  Subject  he  certainly  was  in  his  mediatorial  and 
earthly  office.  But  the  union  of  the  two  natures  was 
real,  organic,  not  apparent  only,  not  dramatic,  nor 
mechanical ;  so  that  when  the  Saviour  suffered,  God 
suffered.  God  did  not  perish  :  how  strange  and  sad 
that  the  thoughtless  perversions  or  wilful  misrepresen 
tations  of  hostile  theologians  should  have  ever  made 
such  a  statement  necessary.  But  when  the  mortal  part 
of  the  Saviour  died,  God  suffered  in  him.  The  shed- 


IN   THE   DIVINE  TRINITY.  391 

ding  of  the  blood  of  such  a  body  was  more  than  a  hu 
man  sacrifice.  The  sundering  of  that  eternal  life-prin 
ciple  from  that  sacred  flesh  was  a  divine  death.  This  is 
what  faith  means,  when,  rising  into  its  unquestioning 
joy,  and  breaking  forth  into  lyrical  thanksgiving,  it 
sings  its  holy  hymns  of  praise  to  a  "  dying  God."  He 
died  as  man,  who  also  liveth  ever  as  God.  And  in  that 
dying,  by  the  intimate  and  transcendent  sympathies  of 
the  divine  and  the  human  in  him,  —  incomprehensible 
indeed,  but  just  as  truly  comprehensible  as  any  creative 
act  of  the  Infinite, —  there  was  involved  God's  anguish 
for  his  sinning  children,  and  his  free  sacrifice  for  the 
broken  law.  The  sacrifice  was  not  confined  to  the  ninth 
hour.  It  was  in  the  garden  ;  it  was  on  the  heavy  jour 
ney  thence  to  Calvary.  It  began  to  be  manifest  even  at 
the  supper  and  the  judgment-hall.  It  was  consummated 
at  the  cross  ;  for  "  without  the  shedding  of  blood  "  there 
could  be  "  no  remission  of  sin." 

And  now  this  is  precisely  what  any  inferior  faith 
fails  to  gain.  Raise  your  conception  of  Christ's  rank 
in  the  scale  of  created  being  high  as  you  may  ;  carry  it 
to  the  mark  of  Ebion  or  Arius ;  assign  the  point  of 
Christ's  beginning  at  whatever  period  in  time  you  will : 
still  both  practically  and  logically  the  needed  atonement 
fails.  The  eternal  Lawgiver  is  not  bearing  the  disinter 
ested  pain  and  wondrous  penalty  for  all  his  creatures 
"  in  that  all  have  sinned."  God  is  not  himself  in  the 
suffering.  This  was  the  requirement  of  the  case.  This 
was  the  longing  of  the  guilty  heart.  This  is  what  the 
Gospel,  from  end  to  end,  in  plain  and  full  and  glorious 
language,  declares.  Read  it  again,  and  see  how  in  the 
interpretation  of  this  principle  all  becomes  consistent 
and  simple ;  all  occasion  for  forced  explanation  and 

33* 


392          LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOR  MAN 

abatement  ceases  ;  all  the  strong  and  earnest  speech  is 
luminous  with  meaning,  and  abounding  in  comfort.  It 
is  not  meant  that  the  understanding,  in  the  presence  of 
a  work  so  vast  and  a  goodness  so  august,  should  be  able 
to  describe  every  part  of  the  wonder,  and  put  in  place 
every  element  of  the  redemptive  power.  But  enlight 
ened  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  delights  to  teach  and 
satisfy  so  docile  a  mind,  it  does  seize  enough  to  cling 
to,  and  cheerfully  hands  over  the  remaining  marvel  to  a 
Christian  trust.  And  trust  gladly  accepts  the  charge. 
The  soul  is  free.  Conscience  is  at  the  same  moment 
released  and  roused  to  an  unprecedented  and  sanctified 
activity.  Duty  never  looked  so  dear.  Obedience  was 
never  so  eager.  Practical  righteousness  was  never  so 
noble,  because  never  animated  by  so  grand  a  motive. 
"  The  cross  "  has  now  no  accommodated,  strained,  per 
plexing  signification,  but  its  entire  evangelical  force 
rings  clearly  and  directly  on  the  inmost  sense  of  faith. 
And  underneath  is  a  peace,  which,  as  they  that  have 
found  it  humbly  testify,  differs  from  all  the  consolations 
ever  felt  before,  and  surpasses  them  all,  as  the  love  of 
God  in  Christ  passes  the  love  of  man. 

To  undertake  here  an  exposition  of  the  inseparable 
connection  of  the  truth  of  the  Trinity  with  the  doctrine 
of  the  atonement  which  has  prevailed  in  the  Church,  in 
respect  to  the  integrity  of  the  Divine  government  and  the 
general  welfare  of  the  race,  would  lie  somewhat  aside 
from  the  immediate  design  of  this  discourse.  Indeed,  it 
is  one  great  danger  of  treating  this  governmental  aspect 
of  the  subject,  that  it  is  apt  to  pass  into  hard,  unspiritual, 
economic  representations.  The  almost  necessary  employ 
ment  of  terms  borrowed  from  civil  polity,  and  the  de 
parture  of  the  discussion  one  remove  from  the  personal 


IN   THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  393 

interests  and  affections  of  a  human  experience,  create 
impressions  of  a  cool  and  legal  handling  of  the  theme 
offensive  to  the  deeper  religious  instincts.  Yet  there  is 
a  very  short  and  simple  process  of  thought,  by  which 
nearly  every  person  is  capable  of  arriving  at  the  conclu 
sion  that,  after  all  claims  to  the  contrary,  the  exact  and 
fearful  problem  of  the  world's  redemption  is  not  solved, 
and  cannot  be,  save  as  Christ  is  seen  to  be  "  very  God  of 
very  God."  There  was  a  thorough  alienation  of  the 
subject  race  from  the  Sovereign.  So  deeply  rooted  was 
it,  so  universal,  so  interpenetrating  all  institutions,  rela 
tions,  faculties,  activities  of  man,  that  no  insurrection 
or  rebellion  against  human  government,  in  all  history, 
serves  for  a  reasonable  or  proximate  illustration  of  the 
disobedience.  How  was  this  lapsed  and  lost  race  to  be 
restored  ?  Words,  declarations,  promises,  would  not  do 
it.  Human  virtues,  converted  generations,  godly  lives, 
bright  examples,  however  multiplied,  could  not  heal  this 
unrighteous  Past,  nor  atone  for  it.  Not  in  the  race  any 
more  than  in  any  one  individual  among  us,  could  any 
amount  of  future  goodness  weigh  one  iota  towards  dis 
charging  all  this  foregoing  waste  and  guilt.  Let  man  obey 
thenceforth  perfectly,  if  he  could,  and  he  would  do  no 
more  than  each  moment's  own  duty  ;  and  even  less  than 
that  he  is  sure  to  do.  The  load  accumulates  instead  of 
being  lightened.  Now,  for  the  Ruler  to  say,  "  No  mat 
ter  about  all  these  days  of  rejection  and  disobedience ; 
no  matter  about  all  these  wanton  and  repeated  affronts 
against  a  blessed  Will  in  which  stands  not  only  the  ve 
racity  of  God  and  the  honor  of  your  King,  but  the  wel 
fare  and  stability  of  the  world  ;  "  this  will  certainly 
have  a  very  singular  effect  on  the  reverence  and  faith 
and  virtue  of  mankind.  No  :  it  is  God,  the  wise  and 


394  LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOR  MAN 

gracious  Lord  of  the  worlds,  who  has  been  disobeyed 
and  offended.  Both  for  the  moral  renewing  and  the 
retrospective  satisfaction  the  atonement  must  clearly 
come  forth  then  from  God.  All  the  obediences  of 
ten  thousand  legions  of  saints  would  not  touch  one 
unreconciled  heart's  position,  either  to  regenerate  or 
acquit.  In  the  person  of  the  Messiah  the  Divine  Life 
was  to  stream  again  into  the  withered  and  crippled 
body  of  humanity.  In  his  Sacrifice,  who  alone  was 
competent  to  make  a  sacrifice  which  should  at  once  sat 
isfy  and  transcend  the  law,  taking  all  its  penalty  and 
leaving  it  unharmed  in  majesty,  the  restoration  was  to 
be  made  complete,  and  the  pardon  free  forever  and  for 
ever.  Now  man  lives  again,  and  lives  a  new  and  glori 
ous  life.  He  sees  and  feels  what  is  done  for  him.  In 
difference  melts  away.  Ingratitude  is  changed  to  con 
secration.  The  dull  and  sluggish  heart  of  humanity  is 
quickened  to  repentance  and  newness  of  life.  The 
streams  of  human  thought  and  feeling  and  aspiration 
begin  to  set  sublimely  heavenward  again.  Faith  looks, 
and  lives.  As  the  serpent  was  lifted  up  in  the  wilder 
ness,  so  the  Son  of  Man  is  lifted  up  ;  and  whosoever 
gazes,  believing,  is  healed,  is  saved.  It  is  as  if  the 
Father  said,  "  All  else  has  been  done  ;  I  have  created, 
guarded,  guided,  supported,  blessed,  forborne  ;  Provi 
dence  and  revelation,  in  nature  and  in  the  inspired  ora 
cles  of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  have  exhausted  their 
possibilities.  Lo  !  one  mercy  more  ;  the  last  and  might 
iest.  I  can  suffer  for  my  children,  I  can  come  in  the 
flesh,  I  can  be  one  of  them.  In  that  incarnation  I  can 
ache  and  weep  and  sorrow  for  them  and  with  them  : 
all  their  stripes  can  be  laid  upon  me.  All  their  infirmi 
ties  can  cling  to  me.  I  can  die  as  they  die,  —  the  last 


IN   THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  395 

of  the  evils  they  dread,  —  the  penalty  of  the  broken  law. 
This  shall  both  move  and  release  them.  This  shall  be 
the  regeneration  and  the  redemption  of  all  mankind 
who  will  believe  it."  0  infinite  compassion  !  Herein 
is  love  !  This  is  the  "  mystery  hid  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world."  The  Holy  Spirit  ever  comes,  from  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  to  make  the  whole  work  effectual 
for  the  Church  and  the  heart.  We  behold,  we  begin  at 
least  to  behold,  why  God  is  forever  ONE,  —  is  forever 
THREE. 

III.  We  have  now  seen  the  need  and  the  power  of 
this  truth  in  the  positive  operation  of  the  personal 
Fatherhood  toward  man,  and  in  the  remedial  action 
required  by  man's  fall  under  sin.  A  third  element  of 
its  practical  efficiency  is  found  in  the  manifold  and  vital 
connections  it  establishes  between  itself  and  the  his 
toric  development  and  practical  piety  of  the  Church. 
The  fact  of  its  prevalence  in  Christendom,  —  a  prev 
alence  so  general  that  it  may  be  taken  as  a  character-* 
istic  and  a  law,  has  already  been  noticed.  Each  of  the 
great  Christian  movements,  from  the  apostolic  age  to 
our  own,  whether  for  the  missionary  extension  of  the 
Gospel,  or  for  the  reformation  and  revival  of  its  spirit 
ual  power  in  communities  where  it  was  nominally  re 
ceived,  has  held  up  the  Triune  confession  as  the  in 
scription  on  its  standard.  But  that  confession  has  been 
more  than  a  conventional  battle-cry  or  password  for 
the  hallowed  aggressions  of  the  Church  militant.  It 
has  expressed  realities  very  precious  to  the  heart,  and 
its  chief  potency  has  been  in  the  moral  energy  of  those 
realities.  It  is  in  vain  to  say  that  other  views  of  the 
New  Testament,  other  interpretations  of  the  Bible, 
other  conceptions  of  the  Divine  nature,  are  equally  ef- 


396  LIFE, 

fectual.  The  impressive  and  obvious  fact  stands  forth, 
that  they  have  not  been.  Whether  we  are  able  to  ac 
count  for  this  or  not,  a  rule  so  uniform  in  its  operation 
becomes  itself  an  argument.  It  is  true,  no  prevalence 
of  the  anti-Trinitarian  belief  in  Christendom  has  existed 
on  so  wide  a  scale  as  to  furnish  a  very  large  oppor 
tunity  to  test  its  self-sacrificing,  organizing,  and  con 
verting  capabilities,  and  this  in  itself  is  significant  testi 
mony.  Amidst  all  its  other  changes  of  form  and  dog 
ma,  of  administration  and  policy,  of  culture  and  sim 
plicity,  however  violent  or  radical  the  revolution,  the 
Church  has  remained  in  this  respect  essentially  unal 
tered.  Oriental  and  Western,  mediaeval  or  modern,  it 
has  been  equally  clear,  confident,  and  full  in  the  recog 
nition,  nay,  in  the  ever-repeated  and  jubilant  affirma 
tion,  of  this  great  practical  mystery  of  faith.  Protes 
tantism  has  been  essentially  just  as  Trinitarian  as 
Romanism ;  the  spontaneous  modes  of  worship,  as  the 
Liturgical.  From  age  to  age,  from  land  to  land,  the 
living  Body  of  the  Lord  has  delighted  to  take  up  the 
^substance  of  that  only  primal  creed,  given  by  the  Sav 
iour  himself  in  the  text,  on  which  her  other  creeds  have 
been  justly  founded,  and  to  repeat,  to  reiterate,  to  lift 
in  reverential  praise,  to  sing  in  holy  triumph,  voice 
answering  to  voice,  and  multitude  to  multitude  in  the 
lofty  chorus,  —  "Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the 
Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  —  as  it  was  in  the  begin 
ning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  world  without  end."  * 

*  Testimony  to  the  reality  of  effects  here  only  briefly  touched,  as  unex 
pected  as  it  is  eloquent,  has  lately  been  given  by  one  of  the  gifted  writers  of 
our  day  whose  whole  .public  career  has  been  associated  with  denomina 
tional  connections  opposed  to  the  Trinitarian  faith,  —  Rev.  James  Mar- 
tineau,  of  England.  What  cause  he  would  assign  for  those  effects  AVC  are  at 


IN   THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  397 

But  we  are  not  left  without  insight  into  reasons  for 
this  result.  The  inwrought  implication  of  the  doctrine 
in  all  the  great  steps  of  man's  spiritual  education  and 
recovery  from  sin  to  God,  as  we  have  already  observed 
it,  would  alone  be  reason  enough.  The  farther  down" 
into  the  heart  of  the  matter  our  study  is  carried,  the 
more  directly  will  the  strength  and  the  satisfaction  of 
the  Christian  life  be  found  indebted  to  the  forces  pro 
ceeding  from  this  source.  Then  there  is  great  religious 


a  loss  to  imagine.  Speaking  of  those  who  deny  the  Trinity,  he  says  :  "  I  am 
constrained  to  say,  that  neither  my  intellectual  preference  nor  my  moral 
admiration  goes  heartily  with  their  heroes,  sects,  or  productions  of  any 
age.  Ebionites,  Arians,  Socinians,  all  seem  to  me  to  contrast  unfavorably 
with  their  opponents,  and  to  exhibit  a  type  of  thought  and  character  far 
less  worthy,  on  the  whole,  of  the  true  genius  of  Christianity.  I  am 
conscious  that  my  deepest  obligations,  as  a  learner  from  others,  are  in 
almost  every  department  to  writers  not  of  my  own  creed.  In  Philosophy 
I  have  had  to  unlearn  most  that  I  hsvd  imbibed  from  my  early  text-books, 
and  the  authors  in  chief  favor  with  them.  In  Biblical  interpretation,  I 
derive  from  Calvin  and  Whitby  the  help  that  fails  me  in  Crell  and  Bel- 
sham.  In  devotional  literature  and  religious  thought,  I  find  nothing  of  ours 
that  does  not  pale  before  Augustine,  Tauler,  and  Pascal.  And  in  the 
poetry  of  the  Church  it  is  the  Latin  or  the  German  hymns,  or  the  lines  of 
Charles  Wesley,  or  of  Keble,  that  fasten  on  my  memory  and  heart,  and 
make  all  else  seem  poor  and  cold.  I  cannot  help  this.  I  can  only  say  I 
am  sure  it  is  no  perversity ;  and  I  believe  the  preference  is  founded  in 
reason  and  nature,  and  is  already  widely  spread  amongst  us.  A  man's 
'  Church '  must  be  the  home  of  whatever  he  most  deeply  loves,  trusts, 
admires,  and  reveres,  —  of  whatever  most  divinely  expresses  the  essential 
meaning  of  the  Christian  faith  and  life ;  and  to  be  torn  away  from  the 
great  company  I  have  named,  and  transferred  to  the  ranks  which  com 
mand  a  far  fainter  allegiance,  is  an  unnatural,  and  for  me  an  inadmissible 
fate.  That  I  find  myself  in  intellectual  accordance  with  the  Socini,  or 
Blandrata,  or  Servetus  in  one  cardinal  doctrine,  —  and  that  a  doctrine  not 
distinctively  Christian,  but  belonging  also  to  Judaism,  to  Islam,  and  to 
simple  Deism,  —  is  as  nothing  compared  with  the  intense  response  wrung 
from  me  by  some  of  Luther's  readings  of  St.  Paul,  and  by  his  favorite 
book,  the  *  Theologia  Germanica.'  " 


398  LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOB  MAN 

value  in  keeping  ever  prominent  before  the  mind  of  the 
believer  a  formula  like  this,  which  perpetually  reasserts 
the  superiority  of  the  things  of  faith  to  the  realm  of 
intellectual  comprehension.  It  offers  a  ceaseless  testi 
mony  to  the  inspired  character  of  Revelation.  It  is  a 
kind  of  moral  monument  showing  that  the  regions  of 
knowledge  and  of  faith,  and  also  of  natural  and  re 
vealed  religion,  while  perfectly  harmonious,  are  yet  dis 
tinct.  It  administers  a  strong  and  wholesome  rebuke 
to  the  "  wisdom  of  the  world  "  which,  even  with  devout 
minds,  is  so  terrible  a  temptation  to  self-conceit  and  a 
pride  of  the  brain.  It  is  a  merciful  safeguard  to  vener 
ation  and  humility,  —  not  beyond  the  reach  of  abuse, 
and  not  always  restraining  the  arrogance  of  human 
nature  even  in  those  that  formally  admit  it,  —  but,  on 
the  whole,  of  large  and  saving  influence.  Besides,  a 
certain  solemnity  of  tone  invests  the  symbols  which 
convey  the  doctrine,  certainly  to  such  as  receive  it,  of 
unwonted  and  elevating  grandeur,  lifting  the  soul  very 
near  to  God.  Definiteness  is  given  to  the  religious 
experience.  Under  the  distributing  and  ordering  effect 
of  this  central,  threefold  fact,  all  the  parts  of  an  intel 
ligent,  evangelical  belief  fall  into  place.  The  ideas 
of  divine  justice  and  love,  requirement  and  forgive 
ness,  legislation,  ransom,  and  sanctification,  play  freely 
within  the  tri-personal  activity,  each  strong  and  full, 
each  in  balance  with  the  others.  Theology  has  a  more 
scientific  development,  worship  a  more  unhesitating 
confidence,  each  sacrament  a  more  opulent  grace. 
Preaching  appeals  to  a  surer  authority;  it  is  charged 
with  a  more  authoritative  and  Biblical  unction ;  it 
contemplates  a  more  specific  end ;  the  undertone  of  a 
more  conservative  and  apostolic  fervor  is  heard  in  it. 


IN   THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  399 

Whether  the  theme  is  man's  want  or  God's  greatness, 
the  Father's  perfections,  the  Son's  condescension,  the 
Spirit's  influence,  there  is  found  prepared  a  great  adap 
tation  of  thought  and  word,  a  lively  apparatus  of  instru 
ments,  phraseology,  imagery,  symbolism,  all  growing 
out  of  this  threefold  conception,  arranged  by  the 
Spirit  for  reaching  and  moving  each  portion  of  man's 
manifold  constitution,  —  reason,  imagination,  sympa 
thy,  trust,  hope.  The  doctrine  of  the  personality  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  becomes  the  indispensable  inspiration  of 
all  those  special  and  social  revivals  of  religious  zeal, 
which  quicken  the  slumbering  vitality  and  replenish 
the  wasted  fires  of  a  formal  or  worldly  ecclesiastical 
community.  Does  sensual  laxity  dissolve,  or  material 
prosperity  paralyze,  the  spiritual  faculties  ?  Here  is  a 
teaching  of  the  Almighty,  and  his  unyielding,  retribu 
tive  law,  which  sends  its  terrible  warnings  upon  the 
careless  conscience,  and  arouses  to  repentance  with 
Pentecostal  power.  Does  the  penitent  heart  long  and 
seek  for  the  way  to  the  Father's  house  ?  Here  is  a 
voice,  saying,  "  Whosoever  shall  call  on  the  name  of 
the  Lord  shall  be  saved."  Do  earnest  inquirers  after 
eternal  life  begin  to  look  with  sympathy  on  one  another, 
and  see  the  windows  of  heaven  opened,  and  welcome 
the  Messenger  of  the  covenant  who  comes  as  a  refiner 
and  purifier  ?  The  assurances,  the  promises,  are  heard, 
"  Jesus  hath  shed  forth  this  which  ye  now  see  and 
hear ;  "  "  The  times  of  refreshing  shall  come  from  the 
presence  of  the  Lord." 

On  the  other  hand,  when  this  view  is  denied,  —  if  one 
may  offer  such  a  criticism  with  no  affront  to  Christ's 
own  charity,  the  bond  of  Christian  perfectness,  —  it 
appears  that,  besides  the  direct  loss  of  positive  evan- 

34 


400          LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT  FOB   MAN 

gelical  resources,  there  is  also  a  general  decline  of 
Christian  efficiency.  There  is  a  diminished  attach 
ment  to  the  person  of  the  Saviour,  a  cooler  loyalty 
to  him,  a  feebler  sense  of  indebtedness  to  him  with 
a  corresponding  abatement  of  all  those  inspiring  and 
grateful  emotions  toward  him  which  the  thought  of 
God  "  found  in  fashion  as  a  man  and  humbling 
himself  to  become  obedient  unto  death,  even  the 
death  of  the  cross,"  is  calculated  to  sustain.  Moral 
obedience  takes  on  a  prudential,  calculating  aspect. 
The  exultant  thankfulness  at  release  by  the  cross 
from  a  deserved  misery  is  gone.  Even  the  belief  in 
Christ's  personal  presence  with  his  people  often  be 
comes  an  abstract  notion,  and  the  joy  of  it  fades 
away.  In  not  a  few  instances,  a  living  faith  in  any 
divine  personality  gives  place  to  a  frigid  intellectual 
nature-worship,  and  God  either  subsides  into  a  philo- 
sopliical  abstraction,  or  is  tied  up  in  the  changeless 
and  fatal  continuity  of  his  own  physical  laws.  The  su 
pernatural  grows  unreal ;  its  glories  vanish  from  the 
scenery  of  the  soul,  and  all  the  tangible  communi 
cations  it  opens  between  heaven  and  earth  are  shut. 
Deism  is  followed  by  naturalism,  naturalism  by  mate 
rialism,  a  materialism  not  a  whit  the  less  Pagan  be 
cause  adorned  with  taste,  learning,  and  a  liberal 
application  of  those  terms  of  Christian  phraseology, 
-and  those  external  habits  of  decorum,  which  are  the 
inestimable  boon  and  heritage  transmitted  from  the 
disowned  creed  of  the  Gospels.  The  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  dwindles  into  an  attenuated,  aesthetic  im 
pression  of  a  regular,  natural  Providence.  The  spe 
cial  act  of  that  Person,  regeneration,  is  dwarfed  into  a 
self-improvement  by  the  human  will.  The  liberty  of 


IN   THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  401 

genuine  prayer  is  shortened,  —  if  prayer  survives  in 
articulate  forms  at  all,  —  into  a  dull  and  barren  pro 
cess  of  self-stimulation  which  yields  effects  like  drop 
ping  new  or  multiplied  buckets  into  empty  wells  ;  — 
for  a  fixed  order  of  events  cannot  hear  supplication, 
praise,  or  thanksgiving.  The  life  dies  out  of  both 
private  and  public  devotion.  Man's  part  of  the  busi^ 
uess  usurps  the  interest  that  belongs  to  God's  part ; 
—  the  professed  worshipper  is  more  anxious  to  be 
enlightened  or  entertained  or  electrified  by  figures  of 
rhetoric  or  bursts  of  declamation  or  ethical  lectur 
ing,  than  to  be  pardoned  for  his  sins,  or  to  have  his 
soul  borne  up  in  self-forgetful  homage.  Through  a 
sentimental  fear  of  charging  God  with  severity,  a  cruel 
blow  is  struck  at  his  equity,  —  and  his  majestic  attri 
bute  of  mercy  is  construed  to  mean  a  fond  indulgence 
of  all  sorts  of  people  in  all  sorts  of  things.  The  very 
possibility  of  mercy  or  forgiveness  is  taken  away,  for 
where  there  is  no  penalty  there  is  no  clemency  ;  indif- 
ferentism  has  nothing  to  forgive.  A  general  infirmity 
creeps  into  religious  action.  A  taste  grows  up  for  that 
sort  of  instruction  which  leaves  all  consciences  equally 
at  ease,  substituting  descriptions  of  a  desirable  goodness 
for  the  Apostle's  abrupt  and  searching  rebuke,  "Repent, 
and  be  converted,  that  your  sins  may  be  blotted  out,"  or 
the  Saviour's  own,  "  Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  like 
wise  perish."  Other  themes  than  those  which  lie  close  to 
the  heart  of  the  Gospel  are  the  popular  subjects  of  the 
pulpit,  till  Paul's  magnifying  of  his  office  is  exchanged 
for  an  effectual  obscuration  of  it  in  a  wonderful  variety 
of  offices.  Of  course  the  distinctive  ecclesiastical  hon 
ors  are  lowered.  Missions  are  languid  or  unknown. 
Enthusiasm  is  chilled.  Not  replenished  by  the  reac- 


402 


tionaiy  strength  of  an  aggressive  and  progressive  zeal, 
the  parishes  are  deadened  at  home.  Discussions  or 
diversions  occupy  the  empty  room  of  the  prayer- 
meeting.  The  Sunday  school  fails  to  supply  its  pu 
pils  with  an  answer  to  those  that  ask  them  what  they 
believe.  "  The  world  "  reaps  an  easy  harvest.  And  of 
course,  where  these  tendencies  predominate,  the  ques 
tion  whether  anything  which  can  properly  be  called  a 
Church  of  Christ  will  continue  is  only  a  question  of 
time.* 

Were  it  to  be  affirmed  that  these  tendencies  always 
work  themselves  out  immediately,  or  in  all  individuals 
who  reject  the  Triune  declaration,  the  insult  to  com 
mon  sense  would  be  as  gross  as  the  breach  of  catholic 
amity.  Devout  men  and  women  who  turn  a  revering 
and  affectionate  heart  to  Christ,  and  yet  persist  in  that 
dogmatic  rejection,  are  found  in  our  day  as  they  have 
been  in  other  days.  To  us  they  seem  exceptional  cases, 
standing  somewhat  apart  from  the  vigorous  currents  of 
Christian  life  in  the  Church,  indebted  after  all  to  hered 
itary  influences  which  they  do  not  acknowledge,  not 
very  successful  in  handing  down  their  piety  from  one 
generation  to  another,  and  denied  some  opportunities 
and  privileges  which,  in  a  clearer  doctrinal  agreement 
with  the  ancient  standards,  would  enlarge  their  useful 
ness  along  with  their  satisfactions.  They  also  seem  to 

*  That  the  term  "  Trinity  "  is  not  Scriptural  furnishes  no  argument  against 
the  Scriptural  authority  for  the  doctrine,  so  long  as  the  truth  is  asserted 
and  reasserted  in  the  Scriptures.  So  the  terms  "Divinity,"  "Deity," 
"  Humanity,"  "  Incarnation,"  "  Missions,"  even  "  Christianity,"  and 
many  more,  are  not  less  used  as  true  because  not  found  in  the  Bible. 
The  veneration  for  the  letter  of  Scripture  which  thus  insists  on  a  mere 
name,  if  consistent,  would  involve  other  conclusions  for  which  the  sup 
posed  objector  would  hardly  be  prepared. 


IN   THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  403 

us,  —  if  the  remark  may  be  allowed,  —  to  suffer  soon  or 
late  under  a  degree  of  theological  inconsistency,  exalt 
ing  Christ  in  their  reverent  affections  to  a  place  which 
they  refuse  him  in  a  deliberate  and  express  confession. 
But  it  must  be  a  narrow  construction  of  the  substance 
of  faith  which  does  not  cheerfully  and  gratefully  recog 
nize  in  them  a  sincere  and  beautiful  imitation  of  much 
in  the  Master's  example.  We  are  aware  that  there  are 
those  who  fail  to  connect  the  evils  we  have  just  enumer 
ated  with  the  cause  to  which  we  have  ascribed  them. 
But  when  we  consider  how  marvellously  God  binds 
causes  and  effects  together,  and  how  at  last  he  blends 
all  revealed  truth  with  righteous  practice  and  accepted 
institutions,  it  does  not  seem  very  strange  that  an  error 
respecting  so  supreme  a  reality  as  the  nature  of  God, 
Christ,  and  the  Spirit,  should  entail  damaging  conse 
quences  not  readily  traced  in  all  the  links  of  their  suc 
cession,  by  the  eye,  on  all  the  interests  of  personal 
and  social  religion.  Undoubtedly,  too,  there  are  faults 
enough  in  those  branches  of  the  Church  where  the 
truth  we  are  advocating  is  fully  held.  But  the  com 
mon  imperfections  of  human  nature  are  not  to  blind 
us  to  the  existence  of  real  contrasts,  nor  justify  us  in 
ignoring  conclusions  equally  enforced  by  the  interior 
nature  and  the  exterior  history  of  the  Christian  system. 

Having  thus  set  forth,  too  cursorily  and  too  feebly, 
the  principal  points  designed  to  be  included  in  the  pres 
ent  discussion,  it  only  remains  to  mention  two  or  three 
more  incidental  religious  advantages  of  this  element  in 
"  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints." 

1.  It  is  found  to  be  an  aid  to  clearness  of  thought  in 
respect  to  the  nature  and  place  of  Christ,  and  thus  indi- 

34=* 


404         LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND    COMFORT   FOR  MAN 

rectly  an  encouragement  to  reverent  sentiments  in  re 
ligious  discourse  and  worship.  Clinging  tenderly  to  his 
humanity,  with  Fe'nelon  "  adoring  even  the  childhood  of 
the  Word  made  flesh,"  and  finding  at  every  step  of  his 
earthly  way  some  fresh  touch  of  sympathy,  we  are  also 
assisted  to  a  less  perplexing  view  of  him  on  the  Throne 
of  his  Glory.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  those  who  regard 
the  Trinity  of  God  as  inconsistent  with  his  Unity,  to  al 
lege  that  the  devout  mind  is  confused  and  perplexed  by 
the  Threeness.  And  where  the  understanding  presses 
itself  in  so  cogently  as  to  subordinate  the  proper  office 
of  pure  adoration,  constantly  taking  up  and  turning 
over,  as  in  the  fingers  of  its  intellectual  curiosity,  the 
relations  or  rank  of  the  persons,  this  is  not  unlikely  to 
occur.  What  is  claimed,  on  the  contrary,  is  that  this 
very  thing  is  a  departure  from  the  just  attitude  of  the 
mind  in  prayer ;  that  the  selfhood  of  the  mind  is  meant 
to  lie  looking  very  humbly  upward  ;  to  be  still  and 
know  that  its  Lord  is  God.  And  further,  it  is  claimed 
that  the  objection  cited  is  apt  to  be  urged  only  by  those 
who  have  not  first  entered  into  the  conception  with  sym 
pathy,  but  judge  it  from  without ;  whereas  such  minds 
as  first  receive  the  doctrine,  and  then  worship  in  it,  dis 
cover  not  only  that  this  objection  disappears,  but  that 
the  liberty  and  satisfaction  of  their  devotions  are  much 
advanced  by  their  belief.  It  suits,  in  fact,  the  actual 
states  of  most  worshippers  to  turn  in  different  moods 
to  each  of  the  Three  in  the  One,  and,  according  to  its 
joy  or  need,  to  praise  and  entreat  each  with  the  whole 
heart,  —  the  Father  as  Creator  and  Providence,  the  Son 
as  Redeemer  and  Embodied  Friend,  the  Spirit  as  the 
Dispenser  of  a  diffused  and  sanctifying  influence  which 
permeates  and  comforts  the  sensitive  soul.  More  or 


^IN   THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  405 

less  clearly  there  arise  thus,  before  the  thought,  and 
impress  the  feeling,  in  these  hours  of  high  communion, 
the  grand  and  moving  facts  of  the  evangelical  history. 
The  holy  imagery  that  peoples  the  audience-chamber  of 
the  Eternal  and  the  mansions  of  heaven  stirs  itself  in 
the  presence  of  the  suppliant.  Ere  it  is  aware,  the 
heart  is  encompassed  with  the  verities  and  events  of 
the  redemption.  Then,  there  is  the  very  precious  mys 
tery  of  Christ's  Intercession,  the  power  of  which  it  is 
exceedingly  difficult  to  support  in  a  mind  which  con 
sistently  rejects  the  Trinitarian  view.  It  would  be, 
perhaps,  the  easiest,  though  not  the  most  agreeable  or 
grateful  method  of  exhibiting  what  we  would  here  bring 
forward,  to  refer  at  length  to  the  difficulties  encoun 
tered  by  persons  of  that  class  in  adjusting  any  de 
finable,  satisfactory  account  of  their  actual  estimate  of 
the  Saviour.  We  often  hear  it  asserted  that  the  anti- 
Trinitarian  view  is  the  simplest,  as  just  now  observed. 
But  it  is  a  "  simplicity  that  brings  disappointment,"  the 
"  clearness  of  a  wintry  day."  Take  any  form  of  it, 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  in  the  honor  paid  to 
Christ.  Is  it  easy  for  the  earnest  and  thoughtful  mind 
to  rest  in  it,  —  we  will  not  say  intellectually,  but  relig 
iously  ?  If  it  is  the  theory,  now  somewhat  prevalent, 
which  attributes  moral  as  well  as  natural  limitations 
and  even  moral  imperfections  to  Jesus,  then  of  course 
the  language  of  his  Gospel,  including  what  he  expressly 
says  of  himself,  is  ruthlessly  abandoned.  If  the  com 
mon  humanitarian  hypothesis  is  assumed,  the  honest 
devotee  will  be  sorely  puzzled  in  taking  upon  his  lips 
such  language  as  we  have  quoted,  the  Saviour's  own 
declarations,  the  Apostolical  ascriptions,  the  epistolary 
benedictions,  the  litanies  of  the  heavenly  host  as  given 


406         LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOR  MAN 

in  the  Revelation,  the  ancient  chants,  lauds,  anthems, 
or  the  familiarized  and  almost  universal  homage  of  b&. 
lievers.  Ascend  to  some  view  more  nearly  conformed 
in  its  terms  of  statement  to  the  Evangelical  standards, 
whether  Arian,  Sabellian,  or  any  modification  of  these, 
and  does  not  the  same  sense  of  inadequacy  linger  ? 
Does  any  such  conception  fill  out,  fairly  and  naturally, 
the  language  of  the  New  Testament,  —  as  that  in  Christ 
dwells  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily  ?  We  put 
it  as  a  matter  of  personal  experiment.  Does  not  praise 
halt  or  hesitate  at  this  wide  diversity  between  the  theo 
logical  opinion  and  the  evangelical  homage  ?  At  one 
moment  the  mind  coolly  concludes  that  Christ  is  a  cre 
ated  being,  made  in  time.  But  it  is  seen  very  soon  that 
this  really  reduces  him  at  once  from  all  proper  divinity, 
and,  by  crossing  the  immense  gulf  between  infinite  and 
finite,  the  Creator  and  the  creature,  it  places  him  essen 
tially  on  the  human  plane,  however  high  up  upon  it. 
Turning  unsatisfied  from  this  conclusion,  driven  from 
it  by  the  terms  of  Scripture,  and  of  the  Saviour  himself, 
who  must  at  least  be  supposed  to  have  known  who  and 
what  he  was,  the  doubters  seek  to  find  some  position  for 
their  Christ  midway  between  the  human  and  divine, 
but  really  belonging  to  neither.  And  here  they  may 
seem  to  pause.  You  ask,  then,  "  What  think  ye  of 
Christ  ?  "  and  they  answer,  they  believe  he  is  "  not  God, 
but  the  Son  of  God."  But  press  the  inquiry  what  they 
mean  by  "  the  Son  of  God,"  and  there  is  no  answer. 
Does  the  Son  follow  the  nature  of  the  Father  ?  Is  he 
the  Son  otherwise  than  as  created  ?  Is  he  superangel- 
ic  ?  But  how  well  can  the  boasted  "  definiteness  and 
simplicity  "  tell  us  what  a  superangelic  being  is,  who  is 
not  God  ?  Is  he  omnipresent  ?  If  not,  how  speak  of 


IN   THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  407 

his  presence  with  you  and  the  Church?  If  he  is,  is 
omnipresence  an  attribute  of  any  but  God  ?  Do  you 
confine  his  personal  stay  on  earth  to  his  visible  min 
istry  ?  But  then  you  take  up  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephe- 
sians,  or  that  to  the  Philippians,  or  his  own  conversa 
tions  with  his  followers  just  hefore  he  suffered,  or  his 
parting  words,  "  I  am  with  you  always,"  and  you  have 
to  drop  that  idea  instantly.  You  pray  for  his  interces 
sions  as  your  Advocate ;  but  how  can  he  intercede  and 
advocate  if  he  does  not  know  your  thoughts  and  all 
your  personal  history  ?  You  think  to  escape  your  con 
fusion  by  adhering  strictly  to  the  language  of  Scripture  ; 
but  as  soon  as  its  glorious  sentences  begin  to  fall  from 
your  lips,  the  startling  inquiry  forces  itself  back,  What 
ever  I  may  make  these  words  mean  now,  would  they 
ever  have  been  chosen  and  used  in  the  first  place  on  any 
other  belief  than  that  Christ  is  properly  and  truly  divine, 
Eternal,  Almighty,  as  the  Church  of  his  Heaven-guided 
people  has  believed  and  taught  ?  So  tossed  between  one 
untenable  supposition  and  another,  the  strength  and  the 
peace  of  faith  are  sadly  missed,  unless,  indeed,  through 
a  happier  admission  of  God's  grace,  the  truth  which 
was  lying  all  the  time  plain  and  persuasive  before  the 
eyes  is  seen,  that  Christ  has  the  nature  of  God  and  the 
nature  of  man  perfectly  united  and  spiritually  wrought 
together  in  his  glorious  Person ;  having  "  all  power  in 
heaven  and  earth"  as  God,  even  as  it  is  written,  —  and 
having  that  power  "  given"  to  him,  as  man  ;  and  thus 
"  God  is  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself."  * 
2.  The  truth  here  presented  goes  far  to  exhibit  the 
mutual  interdependence  of  the  parts  of  Revelation,  and 
to  confirm  the  historical  and  moral  unity  of  the  Bible. 

*  See  Note  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 


408          LIFE,   SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOR  MAN 

That  volume  appears  in  a  character  of  greater  dignity 
and  consistency  in  the  light  of  it.  All  its  successive 
disclosures  and  utterances  fall  into  one  symmetrical 
plan.  The  Incarnation  begins  to  appear,  in  its  prepara 
tions  and  foretokenings,  at  the  very  beginning  of  the 
Biblical  period,  as  the  one  central  fact  and  supreme 
glory  of  the  whole.  The  Eedemption  is  the  theme  of 
the  sublime  chorus  of  inspired  voices  from  Genesis  to 
the  Apocalypse.  As  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration, 
so  in  the  high  seats  of  Prophecy,  Psalm,  Sacred  His 
tory,  and  typical  anticipation,  the  elders  speak  of  the 
decease  which  should  be  accomplished  at  Jerusalem. 
Those  difficulties  of  exegetical  explanation,  which  lay 
so  elaborate  and  puzzling  a  task  on  the  anti-Trinitarian, 
lift  and  disappear,  like  mists  before  the  morning.  "  The 
Light  of  the  World  "  scatters  them.  Christ  is  the  Lord 
of  the  Old  Testament  as  well  as  of  the  New  ;  and  because 
he  is  the  universal  Lord,  ruling  over  the  souls  of  the 
heathen  as  well  as  the  souls  of  Christendom,  it  is  he 
who  saves  every  heart  that  is  saved,  to  the  utmost  cor 
ners  of  the  earth,  even  of  those  who,  not  having  heard 
his  name  nor  knowing  his  law,  yet  do  the  things  con 
tained  in  the  law,  and  feel  the  secret  workings  of  his 
Spirit.  Those  traces  of  the  Divine  Trinity  in  the  for 
mer  Scriptures,  which  are  not  arguments,  are  yet  natu 
ral  and  beautiful  illustrations  or  confirmations.  The 
plural  name  of  the  Creator,  his  speaking  of  himself  as 
"  we  "  and  "  us,"  the  repeated  appearance  in  vision  of 
the  Jehovah- Angel  as  anticipating  the  visible  Messiah, — 
these  things,  to  the  believer,  have  a  meaning  as  symbols 
if  not  as  proofs.  They  appear  at  a  divine  call.  The 
royal  and  sacerdotal  figure  of  Melchisedec  arises  before 
us  in  the  Patriarchal  age,  and  moves  through  the  twi- 


IN   THE   DIVINE  TRINITY.  409 

light  of  history,  as  being,  according  to  the  great  argu 
ment  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  the  living  typo  of 
the  new  king  of  Righteousness  and  Peace,  and  of  the 
"  Priest  forever,"  after  the  heavenly  order  of  priest 
hood,  which  is  "  without  descent,"  "  having  neither 
beginning  of  days  nor  end  of  life,"  "  not  after  the  law 
of  a  carnal  commandment,  but  after  the  power  of  an 
endless  life."  Abraham  did  see  the  Saviour's  day  and 
was  glad.  Moses,  as  Lawgiver,  did  predict  the  Re 
deemer,  and  the  law  given  him  was  the  purposed  prepa 
ration  for  the  "  truth  and  grace  by  Jesus  Christ." 
Shiloh  does  coine,  with  his  never-departing  sceptre  of 
peace,  as  Israel  promised.  All  the  immense  and  costly 
system  of  sacrifices  does  verily  serve  its  predestined  end 
as  the  "  shadow  of  better  things  to  come,"  things  which 
did  come  in  him  who  "  once  offered  up  himself,"  the 
Refiner  and  Purifier  of  all  the  sons  of  Levi,  at  once 
High-Priest  and  Victim,  "  made  higher  than  the  heav 
ens,"  "  continuing  ever,"  "  having  an  unchangeable 
priesthood,"  "ever  living  to  make  intercession."  David, 
chieftain  of  kings,  takes  his  singular  exaltation,  not  only 
from  the  personal  worth  of  his  penitence  and  the  inspi 
ration  of  his  song,  but  as  the  regal  ancestor  of  the  hu 
man  part  in  the  Prince  of  all  the  kings  of  the  earth. 
The  prophecies,  from  age  to  age,  and  along  the  pages  of 
the  Bible,  resound  the  ever-strengthening  and  ever- 
clearer  cry,  "  He  cometh  !  The  Wonderful  Counsellor, 
Mighty  Cod,  the  Everlasting  Father,  the  Prince  of  Peace ! 
Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David !  Blessed  is  he  that 
cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord !  Hosanna  in  the 
highest ! " 

Now  the  disciple,  taking  his  stand  on  this  immutable 
and   far-reaching   ground  of  interpretation,  finds  it  a 


410         LIFE,   SALVATION,    AND   COMFORT  FOR  MAN 

vantage-ground  of  incomparable  superiority.  The  en 
tire  domain  of  Scriptural  revelation  spreads  itself  out 
under  a  more  luminous  sun  and  a  more  hallowed  air. 
Let  literal  criticism  ply  its  needful  and  honorable  labor 
as  it  will ;  let  this  and  that  other  and  less  broad  expla 
nation  be  adduced ;  let  cavillers  dissent  and  deny  be 
cause  that  is  not  demonstrated  which  the  Spirit  offers 
only  to  the  reception  of  faith  ;  nevertheless,  once  seen, 
the  all-pervading  and  underlying  Christian  oneness  of 
the  sacred  writings  is  inestimably  impressive.  They 
become  a  new  creation  to  us  ;  not  a  disjointed,  dissev 
ered,  unequal,  heterogeneous  compilation  ;  but,  in  the 
express  design  of  God,  a  manifold  and  many-voiced 
affirmation  of  a  single  message,  They  are  read,  in  all 
their  parts,  even  those  remoter  in  subject  from  our 
selves,  with  fresh  enthusiasm.  The  poor  presumption 
that  proposes  to  set  aside  any  member  of  the  one  sacred 
whole  comes  to  appear  a  flippant,  superficial  tampering 
of  unholy  hands  with  what  God  has  joined  together. 
No  wonder  the  Saviour  says  of  the  older  Scriptures, 
"  These  are  they  which  testify  of  me  !  "  The  volume  of 
the  BOOK  is  written  of  HIM  ;  of  the  "  Lamb  slain  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world."  The  Forerunner,  last  in 
the  line  of  Hebrew  prophets,  exclaims,  "  Behold  the 
Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world !  " 
And  as  the  record  closes,  amidst  the  ineffable  openings 
of  the  Apocalypse,  the  worshipping  multitude  about  the 
throne,  many  angels  and  elders,  and  every  creature 
from  heaven  and  earth  and  sea,  ten  thousand  times  ten 
thousand,  and  thousands  of  thousands  say,  with  a  loud 
voice,  "  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain  to  receive 
power,  and  riches,  and  wisdom,  and  strength,  and  hon 
or,  and  glory,  and  blessing  !  " 


IN  THE  DIVINE  TRINITY.  411 

And  finally,  we  also,  yet  on  the  earth,  taught  and  re 
assured  by  these  heavenly  and  holy  voices,  take  up  our 
praise  and  prayer,  saying,  "  Glory  be  to  God  in  the 
highest,  the  Creator  and  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  the 
Preserver  of  all  things,  the  Father  of  mercies,  who  so 
loved  mankind  as  to  send  his  only  begotten  Son  into  the 
world  to  redeem  us  from  sin  and  misery,  and  to  obtain 
for  us  everlasting  life !  Vouchsafe,  0  our  God,  to  rep 
resent  thyself  and  all  the  excellences  of  thy  nature,  and 
all  the  testimonies  of  thy  love,  so  powerfully  to  our 
souls,  that  we  may  seriously  reverence  thee,  un- 
feignedly  love  thee,  and  worthily  praise  thee ;  rejoice 
in  thee  incessantly,  trust  in  thee  heartily,  adhere  to  thee 
zealously,  and  serve  thee  devoutly  all  the  days  of  our 
lives ! 

"  Glory  be  to  the  Eternal  Son  of  God,  who  for  our 
sakes  was  made  man,  and  dwelt  among  us,  and  died  for 
us :  who  purged  away  our  sins  by  the  sacrifice  of  him 
self,  and  hath  given  his  body  and  blood  to  be  our  spir 
itual  food  and  sustenance  !  Glorious  things  are  spoken 
of  thee,  0  Jesus,  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  the 
Light  of  the  World,  the  Lamb  of  God  that  takest  away 
sin,  our  Great  High-Priest  who  art  set  down  on  the 
right  hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high,  and  appearest  in  the 
presence  of  God  for  us,  and  art  our  advocate  with  the 
Father  :  who  also  shalt  come  again  with  glory  to  judge 
both  the  quick  and  the  dead  ;  and  whose  kingdom  shall 
have  no  end :  0  blessed  Jesus,  we  acknowledge  thee 
to  be  the  Lord,  the  Holy  One  of  God.  We  adore 
and  worship  thee,  and  look  for  all  blessings  through 
thy  hand  alone,  who  hast  all  power  in  heaven  and 
earth.  Out  of  thy  fulness,  0  most  gracious  Lord,  let 
us  receive  grace  for  grace!  Give  us  humility  and 


412          LIFE,   SALVATION,  AND   COMFORT  FOR  MAN 

meekness ;  purity,  holiness,  and  universal  charity ;  rev 
erence  and  constancy  in  devotion  ;  attentiveness  and 
recollection  of  mind  in  hearing  thy  word ;  patience  in 
waiting  upon  thee ;  weanedness  from  the  world ;  resig 
nation  to  thy  holy  will  and  contentedness  in  all  condi 
tions  ;  sincerity  and  uprightness  of  heart  towards  thee 
our  God,  and  towards  all  men. 

"  Glory  be  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  the  Father  and  of 
the  Son,  who  regenerates  and  sanctifies  us  and  unites 
us  unto  Christ;  who  enlighteneth  our  understandings 
and  disposeth  our  wills;  who  helpeth  our  infirmities, 
strengthened  us  against  temptations,  and  maketh  us  to 
fulfil  our  duty ;  who  directeth  us  in  doubt,  and  com- 
forteth  and  supporteth  us  in  troubles  I  Blessed  Spirit, 
pardon,  we  beseech  thee,  our  grievings  of  thee  and  our 
rebellions  against  thee  !  Be  not  provoked  to  leave  our 
souls  destitute  of  thy  heavenly  influence.  Graciously 
assist  us,  and  make  us  meekly  and  readily  obedient  to 
all  thy  holy  inspirations.  Cherish  and  increase  any 
good  motions  thou  hast  ever  wrought  in  us  towards  a 
more  complete  participation  of  the  Divine  nature.  And 
so  sanctify  us  throughout,  that  our  whole  spirit,  soul 
and  body  may  be  preserved  blameless  unto  the  coming 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ! 

"  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the 
Holy  Ghost ;  as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and 
ever  shall  be,  world  without  end  !  Amen.  ' 

[For  the  sake  of  giving  as  faithful  a  representation  as  possible  of  the 
attitude  of  the  subject  as  it  has  offered  itself  to  the  author's  mind,  and  as  a 
due  acknowledgment  of  many  valuable  impressions  upon  it,  the  following 
extracts  are  made  here  from  a  Sermon  on  "  The  Christian  Trinity  a  Prac 
tical  Truth,"  by  Rev.  Horace  Bushnell,  D.D.,  — himself,  in  his  own  lan 
guage,  though  not  applied  to  himself,  "  a  lover  of  the  doctrine  as  related 
to  the  life  of  religion  and  the  working  of  Christian  experience,  —  preach- 


IN  THE   DIVINE   TRINITY.  413 

ing,  praying,  worshipping,  climbing  up  unto  God  through  an  experience 
shaped  in  the  moulds  of  Trinity  "] 

"  There  is  yet  another  class  of  witnesses,  even  a  great  cloud  of  them. 
"We  mean  those  living  myriads  of  God  on  earth  and  above,  who,  apart 
from  all  scholarship  and  philosophy,  have  been  raised  to  a  participation  of 
God  so  transcendent  in  the  faith  of  this  adorable  mystery,  Why  or  how  it 
is  a  truth  they  have  not  been  able,  it  may  be,  and  as  little  cared,  to  find ; 
for  it  had  proved  itself  to  their  experience  in  such  a  raising  of  their  con 
sciousness,  and  a  communication  to  them  of  the  Divine  nature  so  indispu 
tably  witnessed,  as  to  make  them  inaccessible  to  all  the  colder  assaults  of 
scepticism.  Sometimes  they  have  stated  a  Trinity  to  which  there  have 
been  abundant  reasons  for  exception,  and  yet  they  have  found  such  prac 
tical  virtue  in  that,  as  to  be  raised  quite  above  the  encumbrances  added ; 
and  seem  even  to  have  had  it  for  a  part  of  their  joy,  to  see  how  the  fires  of 
their  faith  could  burn  up  all  the  chaff  of  their  head,  The  Avise  ones  of  the 
Church  and  the  speculative  schools  sometimes  give  them  pity ;  or,  what  is 
not  far  different,  set  them  forth  as  the  weaklings  of  the  faith,  who  make  a 
virtue  of  their  ecstasies  over  what  has  been  imposed  upon  their  superstition ; 
but  the  revelations  of  eternity  will  show  who  were  weakest  and  most  on  a 
level  with  pity,  —  they  who  could  so  readily  fall  into  the  abysses  of  the  Di 
vine  mystery,  or  the  wise  pretenders  who  stood  questioning  over  syllables 
and  refining  in  distinctions,  till  they  had  shut  away  all  mystery,  and  taken 
up  for  God  a  dull  residuum  just  equal  to  the  petty  measures  of  their  under 
standing. 

"  Could  we  bring  up  this  great  cloud  of  witnesses,  and  hear  them  speak 
to  the  question  we  have  here  on  hand,  or  could  we  but  gather  up  the  words 
in  which  they  have  recorded  their  experience  in  the  faith,  even  these  would 
contribute  a  weight  of  evidence  to  the  truth  we  are  asserting,  and  shed  a 
glory  over  it  such  as  to  quite  forbid  the  need  of  any  other  argument. 
Thus,  for  example,  we  should  hear,  at  Heidelberg,  two  centuries  and  a 
half  ago,  the  distinguished  Professor  of  Divinity,  Francis  Junius,  testifying 
that  he  was  in  fact  converted  from  atheism  by  the  Christian  Trinity,  or  by 
the  sense  of  God  rolled  in  upon  his  soul  by  means  of  that  stupendous  mys 
tery  of  the  Gospel.  Having  fallen  into  great  looseness  of  living,  and  be 
come  an  atheist  in  his  opinions,  his  Christian  father  kindly  puts  a  New 
Testament  in  his  hands,  requesting  him  to  read  it ;  and  the  result  is,  that, 
opening  on  a  passage  most  of  all  likely  as  it  would  commonly  be  supposed 
to  offend  and  fortify  his  scepticism,  he  is  visited,  in  its  mysterious  and  sub 
lime  words,  by  such  a  sense  of  God  as  overwhelms  and  instantly  stifles  the 
doubts  which  no  mere  argument  of  books  and  treatises  had  been  able  to 
remove.  He  shall  give  the  account  in  his  own  words :  '  Here  therefore  I 
open  that  New  Testament,  the  gift  of  heaven ;  at  first  sight  and  without 
design,  I  light  upon  that  most  august  chapter  of  the  Evangelist  and  Apos- 


414 


tie  St.  John,  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  word,  and  the  word  was  with  God, 
and  the  word  was  God,"  &c.  I  read  part  of  the  chapter,  and  am  so  affect 
ed  as  I  read,  that,  on  a  sudden,  I  perceive  the  divinity  of  the  subject,  and 
the  majesty  and  authority  of  the  writing,  far  exceeding  all  human  eloquence. 
I  shuddered,  was  confounded,  and  was  so  affected  that  I  scarce  knew  my 
self.  Thou  didst  remember  me,  O  Lord  my  God,  for  thy  great  mercy,  and 
didst  receive  a  lost  sheep  into  thy  flock.'  (Bayle's  Dictionary  ) 

"  The  testimonies  of  Christian  experience  rejoicing  in  this  truth  are  of 
course  more  frequent.  Thus  the  mild  and  sober  Howe,  explaining  in  what 
manner  the  Trinity  is  to  be  connected  with  Christian  experience,  says,  co- 
incidently  with  what  we  have  advanced  concerning  the  relational  nature  of 
the  fact :  '  When,  therefore,  we  are  to  consider  God  as  related  to  us  as  our 
God,  we  must  take  in  and  bring  together  each  of  these  notions  and  concep 
tions  concerning  him  ;  we  must  take  in  the  conceptions  of  each  of  the  per 
sons,  —  "  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  my 
God."  How  admirable  a  thing  is  this !  How  great  and  high  thoughts 
ought  we  to  have  concerning  the  privileged  state  of  our  case !  Indeed  there 
is  nothing  that  we  have  to  consider  of  this  God,  or  to  look  after  the  knowl 
edge  of,  to  answer  the  curiosity  of  a  vain  mind,  but  everything  and  any 
thing  that  may  answer  the  necessity  of  a  perishing  soul.  Whatever  is 
requisite  to  our  real  felicity  and  blessedness,  we  may  look  to  all  that  is  in 
God,  as  determined  by  a  special  relation  unto  us.'  (Works,  p.  1100.) 

"  Jeremy  Taylor,  holding  the  truth  of  the  Christian  Trinity  to  be  a  truth 
entirely  practical,  apprehensible  therefore  in  its  real  evidence  only  by  expe 
rience,  says  :  '  He  who  goes  about  to  speak  of  the  mystery  of  the  Trinity, 
and  does  it  by  words  and  names  of  man's  invention,  talking  of  essences 
and  existences,  hypostases  and  personalities,  priorities  in  coequalities,  and 
unity  in  pluralities,  may  amuse  himself  and  build  a  tabernacle  in  his  head, 
and  talk  of  something  he  knows  not  what ;  but  the  good  man  who  feels  the 
power  of  the  Father,  to  whom  the  Son  is  become  wisdom,  sanctification, 
and  righteousness,  and  in  whose  heart  the  Spirit  is  shed  abroad,  —  this 
man,  though  he  understands  nothing  of  what  is  unintelligible,  yet  he  alone 
truly  understands  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 

"  Again,  the  Marquis  de  Renty,  a  distinguished  French  disciple  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  opens  the  secret  of  his  own  living  experience  in  these 
words :  '  I  bear  in  me  ordinarily  an  experimental  verification  and  a  pleni 
tude  of  the  most  holy  Trinity,  which  elevates  me  to  a  simple  view  of  God; 
and  with  that  I  do  all  that  his  providence  enjoins  me,  not  regarding  any 
thing  for  the  greatness  or  littleness  of  it,  but  only  the  order  of  God,  and 
the  glory  it  may  render  him/  (Life  of  De  Renty.) 

'•'  The  testimony  of  Edwards,  a  man  whose  intellectual  sobriety  and 
philosophic  majesty  of  character  are  not  to  be  disrespected,  corresponds : 
'  And  God  has  appeared  glorious  unto  me  on  account  of  the  Trinity.  It 


IN   THE   DIVINE  TRINITY.  415 

has  made  me  have  exalting  thoughts  of  God  that  ho  subsists  in  three  per 
sons,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  The  sweetest  joys  and  delights  I  have 
experienced  have  not  been  those  that  have  arisen  from  the  hope  of  my  own 
good  estate,  but  in  a  direct  view  of  the  glorious  things  of  the  Gospel.' 
(Life,  pp.  132,  133.) 

"  The  celebrated  Lady  Maxwell,  a  follower  of  Wesley,  is  more  abundant 
in  these  revelations.  She  says  :  '  Yesterday  he  made  his  goodness  to  pass 
before  me  in  a  remarkable  manner,  while  attending  public  worship.  I  was 
favored  with  a  clear  view  of  the  Trinity,  which  I  never  had  before,  and  en 
joyed  fellowship  with  a  triune  God.  1  was  in  the  spirit  on  the  Lord's  day, 
and  felt  my  mind  fixed  in  deep  contemplation  upon  that  glorious  incom 
prehensible  object,  the  ever-blessed  Trinity.  Hitherto  I  have  been  led  to 
view  the  Holy  Ghost  chiefly  as  an  agent,  now  1  behold  him  distinctly  as 
the  third  person  of  the  Trinity.  I  have,  in  my  own  soul,  an  experimental 
proof  of  the  truth  of  this  doctrine,  but  find  human  language  perfectly  insuf 
ficient  for  speaking  or  writing  intelligibly  on  the  subject.  Eternity  alone 
can  unfold  the  sacred  mystery  ;  but  in  the  mean  time  what  we  may  and  do 
comprehend  of  it  is  replete  with  comfort  to  the  Christian.'  (Life,  p.  258.) 

"  It  is  impossible  not  to  admire  the  Gospel  formula  that  can  so  flood  the 
human  soul  in  its  narrowed  and  blinded  state  with  the  sense  of  God,  and 
raise  it  to  a  pitch  of  blessing  so  transcendent.  The  amazing  power  of  the 
Trinity,  acting  thus  on  the  human  imagination,  and  the  contribution  thus 
made  to  Christian  experience,  cannot  be  overestimated. 

"  After  we  have  discovered,  in  this  manner,  how  closely  related  the 
Christian  Trinity  is  to  Christian  experience,  and  all  the  highest  realizations 
of  God,  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  account  for  the  remarkable  tenacity  of  the 
doctrine.  No  doctrine  is  more  paradoxical  in  its  terms.  None  can  bo 
more  mercilessly  tortured  by  the  application  of  a  little  logic,  such  as  the 
weakest  and  smallest  wits  arc  master  of.  None  has  been  more  often  or 
with  a  more  peremptory  confidence  repudiated  by  sections  of  the  Church 
and  teachers  of  high  distinction.  The  argument  itself,  too,  has  always 
been  triumphant  regarding  the  mere  logical  result ;  for  the  fact  is  logically 
absurd,  and  there  is  no  child  who  cannot  so  handle  the  words  as  to  show 
that  no  three  persons  can  be  one.  And  yet,  for  some  reason,  the  doctrine 
would  not  die  !  It  cannot  die  !  Once  thought,  it  cannot  be  expelled  from 
the  world.  And  this  for  the  reason  that  its  life  is  in  men's  hearts,  not  in 
their  heads.  Impressing  God  in  his  true  personality  and  magnitude, — 
impressing  and  communicating  God  in  that  grand  twofold  economy,  by 
which  he  is  brought  nigh  to  our  fallen  state  and  accommodated  to  our 
wants  as  sinners,  showing  us  God  inherently  related  both  to  our  finite 
capacity  and  our  evil  necessity,  what  can  ever  expel  it  from  the  world's 
thought  ?  As  soon  shall  we  part  with  the  daylight  or  the  air,  as  lapse  into 
the  cold  and  feeble  monotheism  in  which  some  teachers  of  our  time  are 
35* 


416          LIFE,  SALVATION,   AND   COMFORT   FOB  MAN 

ready  to  boast  as  the  Gospel  of  reason  and  the  unity  of  a  personal  father 
hood.  No :  this  corner-stone  is  not  to  be  so  easily  removed.  It  was  plant 
ed  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  it  will  remain.  It  is  eternally 
woven  into  the  practical  economy  of  God's  kingdom,  and  must  therefore 
stand  firm.  Look  up,  O  man !  Look  up,  thou  sinner !  in  thy  fall,  and 
behold  thy  God,  eternally  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  bringing  all  his 
vastness  down  to  thy  littleness,  all  the  power  of  his  will  to  release  thee 
from  the  power  of  thy  will,  acting,  manifolding,  circling  round  thee,  inhe 
rently  fitted,  though  infinite,  to  thy  finite  want,  and  so  to  be  the  spring  of 
thy  benediction  for  ever ! 

"  "We  are  fully  conscious  of  the  tameness  and  poverty  of  the  illustrations 
by  which  we  have  endeavored  to  set  forth  this  greatest  of  all  subjects. 
"What  can  a  mortal  say  that  is  worthy  of  this  transcendent  mystery  of  God  1 
Even  if  he  should  some  time  seem  to  be  raised  in  it  quite  above  mortality, 
how  can  he  utter  that  which  is  so  plainly  unutterable  ?  Well  is  it  if  he 
does  not  seem  rather  to  have  blurred  than  cleared  the  glorious  majesty  of 
the  subject,  by  the  consciously  dull  and  feeble  trivialities  he  has  offered. 
Indeed  we  could  not  dare  to  offer  a  discussion  so  far  below  the  real  merit 
of  the  theme,  were  it  not  for  the  conviction  that  there  is  a  lower  and  feebler 
inadequacy,  in  our  common  holding  of  the  theme,  from  which  it  is  scarcely 
possible  to  detract.  To  hold  this  grand  subtonic  mystery,  in  the  ring  of 
whose  deep  reverberation  we  receive  our  heaviest  impressions  of  God,  as  if 
it  were  only  a  thing  just  receivable,  not  profitable ;  a  dead  truth,  not  a  liv 
ing  ;  a  theologic  article,  wholly  one  side  of  the  practical  life ;  a  truth  so 
scholastic  and  subtle  as  to  have,  in  fact,  no  relation  to  Christian  experience ; 
nothing,  we  are  sure,  can  be  less  adequate  than  this,  or  bring  a  loss  to  re 
ligion  that  is  more  deplorable,  unless  it  be  a  flat  denial  of  the  mystery 
itself.  "We  can  wish  the  reader  nothing  more  beatific  in  this  life  than  to 
have  found  and  fully  brought  into  feeling  the  practical  significance  of  this 
eternal  act  or  fact  of  God,  which  we  call  the  Christian  Trinity.  Nowhere 
else  do  the  bonds  of  limitation  burst  away  as  here.  Nowhere  else  does  the 
soul  launch  upon  immensity  as  here  ;  nowhere  fill  her  burning  censer  with 
the  eternal  fires  of  God,  as  when  she  sings,  — 

One  inexplicably  three, 
One  in  simplest  unity. 

"  Who  that  has  been  able,  in  some  frame  of  holy  longing  after  God,  to 
clear  the  petty  shackles  of  logic,  and  the  paltry  quibbles  of  a  world-wise 
speculation,  committing  his  soul  up  freely  to  the  inspiring  impulse  of  this 
divine  mystery  as  it  is  celebrated  in  some  grand  doxology  of  Christian 
worship,  and  has  so  been  lifted  into  conscious  fellowship  with  the  great 
celestial  minds,  in  their  higher  ranges  of  beatitude,  and  their  shining  tiers 
of  glory,  has  not  known  it  as  being,  at  once,  the  deepest,  highest,  widest, 
most  enkindling,  and  most  practical  of  all  practical  truths  ? 


IN  THE  DIVINE  TRINITY.  417 

"  Regarding  it,  then,  as  such,  it  is  only  a  part  of  the  argument  by  which 
we  undertake  to  commend  it  to  faith  and  a  practical  use,  that  we  indicate, 
in  a  few  brief  suggestions,  the  manner  in  which  its  advantages  may  be  most 
fully  received,  and  with  fewest  drawbacks  of  hinderance  and  perplexity. 

"  First  of  all,  then,  we  must  hold  fast  the  strict  unity  of  God.  Let  there 
be  no  doubt,  or  even  admitted  question,  of  that.  Take  it  by  assumption 
that  God  is  as  truly  one  being  as  if  he  were  a  finite  person  like  ourselves, 
and  let  nothing  ever  be  suffered  to  qualify  the  assumption  ;  for  the  moment 
we  begin  to  let  in  any  such  thought  as  that  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost  are  three  beings,  we  shall  be  thrown  out  of  all  rest,  confused,  dis 
tressed,  questioning  what  and  whom  to  worship,  consulting  our  prejudices 
and  preferences,  and  suffering  all  the  distractions  of  idolaters. 

"  Holding  firm  the  unity  in  this  manner,  use  the  plurality  with  the  ut 
most  unconcern,  as  a  form  of  thought  or  instrumental  verity,  by  which  you 
are  to  be  assisted  in  receiving  the  most  unrestricted,  fullest,  most  real  and 
sufficient  impression  of  the  One.  We  must  have  no  jealousy  of  the  three, 
as  if  they  were  going  to  drift  us  away  from  the  unity,  or  from  reason  ;  being 
perfectly  assured  of  this,  that  in  using  the  triune  formula,  in  the  limberest, 
least  constrained  way  possible,  and  allowing  the  plurality  to  blend,  in  the 
freest  manner  possible,  with  all  our  acts  of  worship,  preaching,  praying, 
singing,  and  adoring,  we  arc  only  doing  with  three  persons,  just  what  we 
do  with  one,  —  making  no  infringement  of  the  unity  with  the  three,  more 
than  of  the  infinity  with  the  one.  Let  God  be  three  persons  forever,  just 
as  he  is  one  person  forever,  and  as  this  latter  is  a  truth  accepted  without 
difficulty,  and  held  as  the  necessary  truth  of  religion,  so  let  it  be  our  joy 
that  he  is  a  being  who  needs  for  other  purposes  equally  dear  to  be  and  be 
thought  as  three. 

"  Meantime  we  must  avoid  all  practices  of  logic  on  the  persons.  We 
must  take  them  as  we  take  the  one,  which,  if  we  will  put  our  logic  on  the 
term,  will  immediately  turn  out  to  be  only  a  finite  being,  —  a  man.  They 
are  to  be  set  before  the  mind  at  the  outset  as  a  holy  paradox,  that  only 
gives  the  truth  in  greater  power  of  expression  that  it  defies  all  attempts  at 
logic  or  definition.  Seizing  thus  upon  the  living  symbols,  we  are  to  chant 
our  response  with  the  church,  and  say,  — '  God»  of  God,  Light  of  Light, 
very  God  of  very  God  ; '  and,  if  we  cannot  reason  out  the  paradox,  to  like 
it  the  better  that  it  stops  the  clatter  of  our  speculative  mill-work,  and  speaks 
to  us  as  God's  great  mystery  should,  leaving  us  to  adore  in  silence.  Not 
that  we  are  here  to  disown  our  reason ;  God  is  no  absurdity  as  three  per 
sons  more  than  as  one.  Fully  satisfied  of  this,  we  are  only  to  love  the 
grand  abyss  of  God's  majesty  thus  set  before  us,  and  rejoice  to  fall  into  it, 
there  to  bathe  and  submerge  our  finite  love,  rejoicing  the  more  that  God  is 
greater  than  we  knew,  taller  than  our  reach  can  measure,  wider  than  our 
finite  thought  can  comprehend. 


418       LIFE,  SALVATION,  AND  COMFORT  IN  THE  TRINITY. 

"  Neither  will  it  do  for  us  to  suffer  any  impatience,  or  be  hurried  into 
any  act  of  presumption,  because  the  Trinity  of  God  costs  us  some  strug 
gles  of  thought,  and  because  we  cannot  find  immediately  how  to  hold  it 
without  some  feeling  of  disturbance  or  distraction.  That  is  one  of  the 
merits  of  the  Trinity,  that  it  does  not  fool  us  in  the  confidence  that  we  can 
perfectly  know  and  comprehend  God  by  our  first  thought.  Simply  be 
cause  God  is  too  great  for  our  extempore  and  merely  childish  comprehen 
sion,  he  ought  to  be  given  us  in  forms  that  cost  us  labor,  and  put  us  on  a 
stretch  of  endeavor.  So  it  is  with  all  great  themes.  The  mind  labors  and 
wrestles  after  them,  and  comes  into  their  secret  slowly.  Let  no  shallow 
presumption  turn  us  away,  then,  from  this  glorious  mystery,  till  we  have 
given  it  time  enough,  and  opened  to  it  windows  enough  by  our  praises  and 
prayers,  to  let  in  the  revelation  of  its  glory.  Let  it  also  be  an  argument  of 
modesty  with  us,  and  a  welcome  commendation  to  our  reverence,  that  so 
many  friends  of  God  and  righteous  men  of  the  past  ages,  such  as  bore  a 
greater  fight  than  we,  and  grew  to  greater  ripeness  in  their  saintly  walk, 
bowed  themselves  adoringly  before  this  holy  mystery,  and  sung  it  with 
hallelujahs  in  the  worship  of  their  temples,  in  their  desert  fastings,  and 
their  fires  of  testimony.  And  as  their  Gloria  Patri,  the  sublimest  of  their 
doxologies,  is,  in  form,  a  hymn  for  the  ages,  framed  to  be  continuously 
chanted  by  the  long  procession  of  times,  till  times  are  lapsed  in  eternity, 
what  can  we  better  do  than  let  the  wave  lift  us  that  lifted  them,  and  bid  it 
still  roll  on  ?  " 


SERMON    XXI. 

THE  PROMISE  AND  ASSURANCE  OF   SANCTIFICATION. 

MY  SHEEP  HEAR  MY  VOICE,  AND  I  KNOW  THEM,  AND  THEY  FOL 
LOW  ME  :  AND  I  GIVE  UNTO  THEM  ETERNAL  LIFE  ;  AND  THEY 
SHALL  NEVER  PERISH,  NEITHER  SHALL  ANY  MAN  PLUCK  THEM 

OUT  OF  MY  HAND. — John  x.  27,  28. 

BOTH  in  the  common  business  of  Christian  living,  and 
in  the  discouragements  of  Christian  failure,  there  is  an 
inestimable  power  in  the  assurance  so  explicitly  given 
in  these  words  of  the  Saviour.  And  this  is  the  assur 
ance  :  All  who  have  become  his  by  the  communication 
into  their  souls  of  his  secret  and  divine  life  through 
faith  shall  be  securely  and  inviolably  kept  in  that  com 
munion.  They  are  not  on  the  same  ground  with  the 
rest  of  the  world.  They  live  in  no  uncertainty.  They 
have  believed  to  some  purpose.  They  have  not  made 
their  good  confession  for  a  disappointment.  The  prom 
ises  of  God  have  not  imposed  upon  them  a  delusion. 
The  laws  of  their  spiritual  nature  are  not  going  to  play 
them  false.  There  are  privileges,  there  are  safeties, 
pertaining  to  them,  not  to  be  had  in  any  other  way 
than  this  new  way.  The  salvation  they  are  told  of 
means  something.  The  almighty  friendship  of  the 
Saviour,  pledged  to  them  when  they  consented  to  be 


420         THE  PROMISE  AND  ASSURANCE 

his  friends,  amounts  to  something.  They  are  not  out 
side,  but  inside  a  commonwealth,  or  fold,  which  has 
defences,  foundations,  immunities.  Over  it  is  a  Guar 
dian  who  is  not  a  covenant-breaker,  a  Shepherd  that  is 
a  King.  No  man  is  able  to  pluck  them  out  of  his  hand. 
Say  nothing  of  that  deep  experience  which  is  the  only 
competent  interpreter  in  the  case,  since  it  brings  with  it 
a  new  organ  of  discernment ;  who  of  us,  even  by  the 
common  knowledge  of  common  things,  does  not  see 
that  a  new  and  invigorating  character  must  be  given 
to  the  whole  action  of  the  religious  life,  when  this 
conviction  about  it  is  established  as  a  living  habit  in 
the  soul  ? 

Take  first  the  moods  of  religious  dissatisfaction. 
These  are  various  in  their  occasions,  various  in  form, 
color,  and  degree,  according  to  .individual  temperament 
and  situation.  They  range  over  the  whole  scale  of 
man's  marvellous  sensibility  to  doubt,  to  fear,  to  pal 
pable  accusings  of  conscience  and  nameless  depressions. 
They  gather  up  their  painful  elements  from  without  and 
from  within.  They  shape  themselves,  with  a  multi 
formity  of  suffering  that  is  wonderful  and  fearful,  to  all 
our  individual  ideas  of  what  the  Christian  life  is,  and  of 
what  God  requires.  If  you  conceive  of  this  chiefly  as 
an  obligation,  you  see  with  dismay  that  the  command 
outreaches  your  obedience.  If  you  regard  it  as  a 
privilege,  you  are  mortified  that  you  abuse  it.  If  you 
take  the  legal  view,  you  feel  the  sentence  of  death  in 
your  self-judgment ;  if  the  ethical,  your  moral  standard 
mocks  and  shames  you.  If  the  disinterested  compas 
sion  of  Christ's  sacrifice  moves  you,  you  are  humiliated 
at  the  poverty  of  your  return  and  even  the  dulness  of 
your  gratitude.  If  you  are  inclined  to  look  mainly  into 


OP   SANCTIFICATION.  421 

the  Bible  for  your  direction,  then  the  distance  between 
that  Book  and  the  record  of  your  own  doings  is  the  dis 
tance  between  Heaven  and  earth,  between  holy  and  un 
holy.  Or  if  you  listen  reverently  for  the  voices  of  intu 
ition,  springing  in  the  oracles  of  your  own  immortal 
spirit,  still  the  ideal  dwarfs  the  performance,  and  the 
honest  conscience  cries,  "  Unclean,  unclean !  "  — "  Mis 
erable  man  that  I  am,"  "  who  shall  deliver  me  ?  " 

If  these  were  only  moods  of  discontent,  and  nothing 
more,  they  might  be  taken  as  a  wholesome  portion  in  a 
necessary  discipline  ;  an  interior  crucifixion  into  that 
meekness  which  is  of  the  very  essence  of  Christian  sub 
mission  ;  or  else  as  a  stimulus  to  a  stronger  work  and 
warfare.  For  it  is  inevitable  that  a  faith  whose  charac 
teristic  spirit  is  eternal  aspiration  should  be  more  or 
less  a  sorrowing  faith.  If  any  of  us  shrink  from  com 
mittal  to  it,  or  toss  off  its  Divine  invitations,  because  we 
are  such  cowards  as  to  dread  these  attendant  shadows 
of  its  glory,  still  we  do  not  mistake  its  grand  condi 
tions  ;  we  only  forfeit  what  the  timid  and  servile  soul 
could  not  hold  at  any  rate  till  it  is  transformed  and  new 
born  by  the  Spirit  of  courage  and  of  liberty,  the  Spirit 
of  power,  and  of  love,  and  of  a  sound  mind. 

Nevertheless,  friends,  Christians,  in  whom  this  spirit 
has  begun,  you  know  there  is  a  bound  where  all  this 
dissatisfaction  and  unrest  ought  to  end.  Beyond  that 
limit  it  becomes  a  hinderance  to  Christian  growth,  a  fet 
ter  upon  Christian  liberty,  a  chill  upon  Christian  zeal. 
Instead  of  inspiriting,  it  debilitates.  By  an  easy  and 
dangerous  transition  it  passes  into  a  morbid  self-occu 
pation,  which  shuts  off  charity  for  men  and  service  to 
Christ.  It  becomes  a  practical  denial  of  the  supporting 
strength  and  the  pledged  grace  of  God.  There  can  be 


422  THE   PROMISE  AND   ASSURANCE 

little  freedom,  or  heartiness,  or  efficiency,  in  the  wor 
ship  or  the  living,  under  this  overshadowing  anxiety. 
Better  far  always  than  indifference  or  unconcern,  it  is 
not  the  natural,  healthy  state  of  a  disciple.  If  it  is  an 
inevitable  stage  on  the  way  to  that  state,  yet  it  should 
always  be  treated  as  just  that  and  no  more,  —  tempo 
rary,  instrumental,  immature :  tending  ever  to  peace ; 
looking  for  the  joy  of  believing ;  waiting  for  the  prom 
ise  of  the  Comforter;  pressing  on,  with  confident  expec 
tation,  from  the  transient  "  spirit  of  bondage  to  fear," 
which  asks,  "  Who  shall  deliver  me? "  into  the  abiding 
"  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus,"  where  "  there  is  no 
condemnation,"  and  into  the  blessed  "  spirit  of  adop 
tion  whereby  we  cry,  Abba,  Father :  "  "if  God  be  for 
us,  who  can  be  against  us  ?  "  "  Neither  death,  nor  life, 
nor  things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height  nor 
depth,  nor  any  other  creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate 
us  from  the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord."  If  it  be  possible,  every  Christian  heart  will  feel 
it  to  be  a  part  of  its  Christian  endeavor  and  prayer  to 
lay  off  the  weight  which  burdens  the  race,  exchanging 
it  for  this  undoubting,  full  assurance  of  faith. 

And  to  a  greater  extent  than  even  many  earnest,  sin 
cere  people  believe,  it  certainly  is  possible.  The  Lord 
of  our  salvation  has  made  it  possible.  It  is  possible,  not 
in  our  might,  or  wisdom,  or  self-lifting,  but  by  his  own 
Spirit,  given  to  those  who  seek  in  simplicity.  It  is  pos 
sible,  by  our  seeing  him  as  he  is,  receiving  him  as  he  is 
offered,  following  him,  not  for  our  own  sake,  but  for  his 
sake.  It  is  possible  that  we  should  "  be  of  good  cheer," 
because  he  has  overcome  the  world's  tribulation.  It 
is  possible  we  should  "  fear  not,"  because  "  it  is  the 
Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  us  the  kingdom."  It  is 


OF   SANCTIFICATION.  423 

possible  we  should  "  fear  none  of  those  things  which  we 
shall  suffer,"  because  our  Saviour  has  suffered  for  us. 
It  is  possible  for  us  to  do  our  work  cordially,  without 
misgiving  of  failure,  without  dread  of  a  separation  from 
the  great  Source  of  our  safety  and  strength,  —  because 
"  no  man  shall  be  able  to  pluck  "  his  people  "  out  of 
his  hand." 

There  is  an  anecdote  of  the  saintly  and  learned  Arch 
bishop  Usher,  not  unfamiliar  to  religious  readers,  which 
is  meant  to  illustrate  his  spiritual  modesty.  It  relates 
how  a  friend  frequently  urged  him  to  write  his  thoughts 
on  Sanctification,  which  at  length  he  engaged  to  do ; 
but,  a  considerable  time  elapsing,  the  performance  of  his 
promise  was  importunately  claimed.  The  Bishop  replied 
to  this  purpose  :  "  I  have  not  written,  and  yet  I  cannot 
charge  myself  with  a  breach  of  promise,  for  I  began  to 
write  ;  but  when  I  came  to  treat  of  the  new  creature 
which  God  formeth  by  his  own  Spirit  in  every  regener 
ate  soul,  I  found  so  little  of  it  wrought  in  myself  that  I 
could  speak  of  it  only  as  parrots,  or  by  rote,  but  with 
out  the  knowledge  of  what  I  might  have  expressed ; 
and,  therefore,  I  durst  not  presume  to  proceed  any  fur 
ther  upon  it."  Upon  this  his  friend  stood  amazed  to 
hear  such  a  confession  from  so  grave,  holy,  and  emi 
nent  a  person.  The  Bishop  then  added  :  "  I  must  tell 
you,  we  do  not  well  understand  what  sanctification  and 
the  new  creature  are.  It  is  no  less  than  for  a  man  to 
be  brought  to  an  entire  resignation  of  his  own  will  to 
the  will  of  God  ;  and  to  live  in  the  offering  up  of  his 
soul  continually  in  the  flames  of  love,  as  a  whole  burnt- 
offering  to  Christ ;  and  0,  how  many  who  profess  Chris 
tianity  are  unacquainted,  experimentally,  with  this  work 
upon  their  souls !  " 


424         THE  PROMISE  AND  ASSURANCE 

As  an  example  of  personal  self-distrust,  this  is  touch 
ing  and  beautiful.  But  to  infer  from  it  that  there  are 
themes  of  spiritual  thought  unfolded  in  the  Gospel 
really  and  finally  beyond  the  reach  of  sincere  and  con 
secrated  souls  would  be  a  perversion  of  it.  By  large 
confidences  in  the  Saviour's  promises  Christians  do 
not  extol  themselves,  but  honor  him.  The  New  Tes 
tament  writers  never  misapprehend  man's  spiritual 
nature.  They  never  overstate  God's  encouragements. 
Sanctification  is  an  actual  and  frequent  theme  of  Evan 
gelical  meditation  and  exposition.  Sooner  or  later, 
therefore,  a  declaration  of  "  the  whole  counsel  of  God  " 
requires  that  it  be  gratefully  and  solemnly  and  rever 
ently  opened.  If  we  stammer  and  blunder,  the  same 
"  Faithful  Promiser  "  will  pity,  correct,  forgive.  There 
is  a  shortcoming  of  faith  which  nothing  else  will  en 
large.  There  is  a  religious  anxiety  that  nothing  else 
will  console.  I  spoke  of  the  variety  of  forms  that  re 
ligious  anxiety  assumes.  Yet  down  at  its  deepest  source 
it  is  probably  very  much  one  and  the  same  thing,  hav 
ing  one  and  the  same  cause.  It  springs  from  a  feel 
ing  of  one  fact,  —  the  distance  between  what  we  ought 
to  be  and  what  we  are.  In  one  way  of  putting  it  or 
another,  that  is  the  solemn  difficulty :  the  great,  deep 
gulf  that  still  opens  between  what  the  Holy  Father  in 
heaven  must  require  of  us,  and  the  lives  we  live :  a 
gulf  so  great  and  deep,  and  so  imperceptibly  narrowed, 
if  at  all,  that  it  threatens  to  keep  us  apart  forever. 
Apart !  Patiently  examine,  analyze,  and  confess  it,  and 
see  if  this  is  not  the  secret  of  the  fear.  Quicken  any 
soul  into  a  more  delicate  sensibility,  and  this  is  the  real 
question  that  distresses  it.  To  be  left  apart  from  its 
Lord !  It  is  deeper  than  any  selfish  alarm.  It  is 


OF   SANCTIFICATION.  425 

grander  than  the  suffering  of  any  material  penalty. 
It  is  the  sorrow  of  love,  of  loyalty,  of  devoted  and 
honorable  friendship.  It  belongs  to  the  noblest  view, 
and  the  most  generous  philosophy,  of  Christian  truth. 

Hence  it  is  that  the  passage  where  the  text  occurs 
meets  profoundly  just  the  inmost  nature  of  the  trouble, 
in  all  its  diversity  of  action.  Christ  is  conversing  with 
his  disciples  about  their  future.  He  knows,  and  they 
begin  to  feel,  that  in  that  future  is  involved  one  secret 
which  contains  all  other  interests,  hopes,  terrors.  What 
is  to  become  of  their  connection  with  him  ?  Is  it  to 
cease  ?  Is  it  to  last  forever  ?  Tell  them  that,  and  you 
solve  the  one  darkest  doubt  that  haunts  them. 

Their  Master  tells  them.  Already  he  had  revealed  to 
them,  as  their  slowly  opening  minds  were  prepared  for 
it,  one  and  another  of  his  great  designs  and  offices  in 
their  behalf.  He  had  told  them,  in  imagery  beautifully 
and  touchingly  diversified,  many  sublime  marvels  of  his 
Messiahship  ;  that  he  was  "  the  Door,"  by  which  alone 
every  man  must  enter  in  ;  "  the  Light,"  by  which  every 
man  who  sees  must  be  lighted  ;  the  "  Living  Water," 
quenching  every  thirst ;  ai\d,  at  last,  rising  to  a  more 
personal  and  intimate  representation,  that  he  was  the 
"  Good  Shepherd  "  of  all  souls,  in  heaven  and  earth, 
keeping  the  frail,  recovering  the  lost.  Still  something 
remained  untold.  Doubtless  the  very  object  of  these 
startling  statements  was  to  arouse  their  thoughts  to  fur 
ther  inquiries,  and  so  prepare  them,  by  a  natural  edu 
cation,  and  not  a  blind  compulsion,  for  the  greater  truth 
to  come  ; — just  as  he  still  often  waits  to  bestow  on  us 
his  richest  blessings,  till  ripened  affections  are  stirred  to 
seek  them.  The  Jews  come  at  last,  and  say,  "  How 
long  dost  thou  make  us  to  doubt?  If  thou  be  the 


426  THE   PROMISE   AND   ASSURANCE. 

Christ,  tell  us  plainly."  He  answers  their  unbelief 
plainly  ;  and  then,  turning  to  the  few  hearts  which  he 
knew  were  struggling  with  the  weight  of  a  more  serious 
premonition  :  "  My  sheep  hear  my  voice,  and  I  know 
them,  and  they  follow  me.  And  I  give  unto  them  eter 
nal  life,  and  they  shall  never  perish  ;  neither  shall  any 
man  pluck  them  out  of  my  hand."  Let  who  will 
among  them  take  comfort  from  the  assurance ! 

Even  so  far  back  as  the  Patriarchal  period  our 
Lord  began  to  reveal  himself  as  a  Promise-maker 
and  a  Promise-keeper,  —  a  God  of  covenants.  And 
not  only  were  these  promises  literal  and  Scriptural. 
Sublime  signs  attested  him.  The  stars  of  the  Eastern 
sky  were  marshalled  into  his  witnesses  over  the  Mount, 
when  the  angel  pointed  Abraham  to  them  in  the  re 
demptive  promise  of  his  posterity :  "  In  thy  seed  shall 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed,"  -  -  "  as  the  stars 
of  heaven  for  multitude."  Bethel,  the  solemn  pasture- 
ground  whence  the  ladder  of  light  sprang  up  to  heaven 
while  Jacob  slept,  was  bright  with  the  same  eternal 
promise,  and  when  he  awoke  into  the  splendor  he  cried, 
"  How  dreadful  is  this  place,"  —  "house  of  God  and 
gate  of  heaven."  Peniel,  where  the  Patriarch  wrestled 
in  the  long,  dark  night,  and  cried  at  length,  "  Let  me 
go,  for  the  day  breaketh,"  and  gained  his  new  name, 
"  Israel,"  as  a  pledge  of  "  power  with  God,"  became  a 
monument  of  promise.  The  whole  Mosaic  apparatus, 
from  the  "  circumcision  in  the  flesh  "  to  the  Temple  on 
Moriah,  and  from  the  Garden  of  Eden  to  the  Garden 
of  Gethsemane,  was  a  system  of  historic  symbols  and 
instruments  to  persuade  men  they  had  to  do  with  a 
Jehovah  that  remembered  his  pledges.  All  the  sacred 
lands  were  dotted  over  with  the  tokens  of  these  divine 


OP   SANCTIFICATION.  427 

covenants,  like  the  signature  to  a  bond.  That  Oriental 
territory  became  a  kind  of  outspread  scroll,  its  hills  and 
rivers  printed  with  promissory  memorials  speaking  from 
one  generation  to  another.  It  vivified  the  people's  faith 
and  strengthened  their  hands  to  fight  for  the  personal 
God  who  had  agreed  to  stand  by  them.  And  when  the 
Messiah  was  born,  the  old  promises  were  at  once  ful 
filled  and  grew  more  articulate,  while  "  new,"  "  more 
glorious,"  "  better  "  promises  were  added.  "  God  was 
manifest  in  the  flesh,  justified  in  the  spirit,  seen  of  angels, 
preached  unto  the  Gentiles,  believed  on  in  the  world, 
received  up  into  glory."  United  now  with  humanity,  his 
assurances  had  a  human  sound  as  well  as  a  divine  au 
thority,  and  every  word  was  "  glad  tidings."  It  was  a 
Testament,  a  covenant.  Its  great  pledge  was  that  of  a 
redemption  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  and  the  end  of  time. 
A  Personal  "  Comforter,"  "  a  Paraclete,"  was  to  come,  to 
"  abide,"  apply  it,  and  give  it  an  everlasting  practical 
energy.  He  was  promised  to  come  from  Christ,  and 
dwell  in  the  Church,  and  carry  forward  its  reconciling 
work  forever. 

If  we  begin  to  read  the  New  Testament  for  the  first 
time  with  this  truth  for  a  key,  we  shall  find  that  the 
light  of  a  new  meaning  begins  to  shine  along  the  pages. 
Take,  for  example,  those  conversations  Christ  held  with 
his  disciples  just  before  his  separation  from  them,  writ 
ten  in  John.  Do  we  not  all  acknowledge  that,  in  our 
human  sympathies,  the  first  sad  thought  which  intrudes, 
after  the  establishing  of  a  new  and  valuable  friendship, 
or  the  assured  possession  of  a  coveted  affection,  is  the 
question  about  its  duration  ?  What  will  endanger  it  ? 
Can  anything  break  it  ?  To  meet  that  fear,  Jesus  took 
much  of  those  last  hours  of  communion  to  reassure  his 

36* 


428         THE  PROMISE  AND  ASSURANCE 

friends,  in  every  form  of  promise,  that  he  would  not 
leave  them  exposed  or  forsaken  or  comfortless,  but 
come  back  to  them,  abide  with  them,  watch  over  them, 
deliver  them.  "  That  where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be 
also."  Nay,  it  shall  be  an  internal  union.  "  At  that 
day  ye  shall  know  that  ye  are  in  me,  and  I  in  you." 
There  shall  be  not  only  union,  but  love,  —  Almighty 
love.  "  He  that  loveth  me  shall  be  loved  of  my  Father, 
and  I  will  love  him,  and  will  manifest  myself  to  him." 
"  I  and  my  Father  are  one."  Hence  all  alarm  must 
disappear.  "  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled,  neither 
let  it  be  afraid."  Nor  shall  it  be  merely  a  negative 
thing,  —  this  absence  of  terror,  —  but  a  positive  and 
settled  peace  :  "  My  peace  I  give  unto  you."  And  this 
shall  pass  into  active,  productive  righteousness.  "  Every 
branch  in  me  that  beareth  fruit,  he  purgeth  it  that  it 
may  bring  forth  more  fruit."  Besides,  all  new  wants 
shall  be  supplied  :  "  Abiding  in  me,  ye  shall  ask  what 
ye  will,  and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you."  "  The  Spirit 
of  truth  will  guide  you  into  all  truth."  "  Father,  I 
will  that  they  also  whom  thou  hast  given  me  be  with 
me  where  I  am :  "  "  No  man  shall  pluck  them  out  of 
my  hand."  What  promises  are  these  ! 

Turning,  then,  to  the  corresponding  confidence  created 
by  them  in  the  mind  of  the  Apostles,  we  have  resplen 
dent  instances  of  the  assurance  of  faith  responding. 
Hear  Paul  to  his  fellow-witness :  "I  suffer ;  neverthe 
less,  I  am  not  ashamed :  for  I  know  whom  I  have  be 
lieved;" —  the  tranquil  and  triumphant  answer  to  all 
persecution,  sophistry,  hatred,  ridicule,  to  all  unbelief, 
in  all  ages  :  "  I  know  whom  I  have  believed,  and  am 
persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  keep  that  which  I  have 
committed  unto  him,  against  that  day,"  —  the  day  that 
brings  "life  and  immortality  to  light." 


OF  SANCTIFICATION.  429 

Or  listen  to  those  majestic  affirmations  of  assurance, 
in  the  Eighth  to  the  Romans,  —  a  kind  of  echo  to  the 
promise  of  our  text,  —  assurance  answering  to  assur 
ance,  rising  and  gathering  power  as  it  rolls  on,  each 
clause  coming  with  the  certainty  of  a  decree,  —  solemn 
at  once  and  jubilant :  "  For  whom  he  did  foreknow 
he  also  did  predestinate,  to  be  conformed  to  the  image 
of  his  Son.  Moreover,  whom  he  did  predestinate,  them 
he  also  called  ;  and  whom  he  called,  them  he  also  justi 
fied  :  and  whom  he  justified,  them  he  also  glorified. 
If  God  be  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us  ?  " 

Now  all  these  passages,  and  too  many  more  to  be 
even  mentioned,  present  our  most  holy  religion  to  us 
in  a  light  not  only  very  different  from  what  our  feeble 
faith,  sinking  below  its  high  calling,  is  too  apt  to  linger 
in,  but  one  that  is  of  unspeakable  interest  in  the  actual 
and  necessary  difficulties  of  the  Christian  life.  We  are 
not  left  to  ourselves,  with  a  mere  guide-book  in  our 
hands,  and  the  mere  reminiscence  of  a  vanished  voice 
behind  us.  The  grand  peculiarity,  the  divincst  charac 
teristic,  of  the  Christian  Gospel  is,  that  it  does  not  stop 
with  telling  us  how  to  act,  but  enters  in,  by  the  living 
person  of  the  Lord,  and  becomes  an  indwelling  force, 
by  which  we  act.  It  is  not  only  a  precept  before  our 
eyes,  but  a  power  in  our  hearts.  The  spiritual  world 
is  not  only  an  expectation,  but  all  its  channels  of  in 
spiring  influence  have  been  set  open  by  the  Media 
tor,  and,  through  him,  henceforth,  the  believer  lives  in 
direct  relations  and  immediate  intercourse  with  God. 
The  disciple  is  encircled  and  touched  with  the  celestial 
presence.  Another  will  than  his  own  has  begun  to 
work  within  his  own,  —  both  to  will  and  to  do.  In 
proportion  to  his  faith  in  that,  he  can  do  all  things,  — 


430         THE  PROMISE  AND  ASSURANCE 

"  through  Christ  strengthening  him."  Nothing  shall 
by  any  means  hurt  him.  So  much  stronger  is  this  Holy 
Spirit  felt  to  he  in  him,  than  anything  self-derived,  that 
he  says  with  Paul,  "  It  is  no  more  I  that  live,  hut 
Christ  that  liveth  in  me."  The  superficial  delusion  of 
the  senses  passes  away  ;  this  invisible  reality  is  more 
plain  to  his  consciousness  than  anything  the  senses  take 
knowledge  of.  He  has  nothing  to  fear  ;  for  nothing 
can  pluck  him  from  that  Hand  of  Power  in  which  he 
rests. 

Furthermore,  the  true  disciple's  faith  is  not  a  means 
nor  a  merit  by  which  either  salvation  or  peace  is  bought. 
The  Gospel  says,  "  Believe  and  live."  And  the  moment 
any  soul  hears  that,  it  believes,  if  it  believes  at  all, 
simply  because  it  must.  It  is  true,  the  assurance,  the 
peace,  does  not  come  till  the  faith  comes.  But  neither 
does  it  come  if  the  faith  is  brought  as  a  deserving  equiv 
alent  for  it.  In  other  words,  we  are  not  to  believe  for 
our  own  sake,  but  for  Christ's  sake  :  because  he  su 
premely  deserves  it,  by  his  infinite  love  and  sacrifice. 
The  mind  of  Christendom  has  yet  to  undergo  a  great 
change  at  just  this  point,  as  well  as  the  preaching. 
We  are  not  sanctified  in  order  to  be  justified,  but  sanc 
tified  because  we  are  justified.  This  is  the  Divine  order. 
Faith  ;  more  faith  ;  assurance  ;  sanctification  ;  peace. 
This  makes  the  Christian  service  and  progress  a  free, 
joyful  tribute  of  gratitude.  "  He  that  hath  this  hope 
in  him  purifieth  himself."  The  believer  is  not  still 
struggling,  down  under  the  bondage  of  compulsion, 
trying  sorrowfully  to  get  faith  enough,  any  more  than 
works  enough,  to  be  saved  by.  He  is  up  on  the  heights 
of  spiritual  liberty,  no  longer  under  law,  but  in  grace. 
He  has  lost  sight  of  self  and  its  solicitudes.  He  knows 


OF   SANCTIFICATION.  431 

in  whom  he  has  believed,  and  is  assured  that  he  is 
"  saved  already  "  in  that  he  does  believe,  —  "  passed 
from  death  unto  life."  And  thus,  being  emancipated 
from  the  hinderance  of  self-interest,  he  obeys  from  love, 
brings  his  body  more  and  more  under,  for  the  pure 
Master's  sake,  goes  from  grace  to  grace,  and  has  "  peace 
with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  In  the  same 
way  it  may  be  said  that  we  have  not  to  go  in  search  of 
a  Saviour,  but  only  to  be  found  of  him  who  so  tenderly 
has  come  out  into  the  cold  mountains  of  our  pride  and 
unbelief,  in  search  of  us,  according  to  that  affecting 
"  hymn  of  faith  and  hope  "  of  Bonar,  — 

"  The  Shepherd  sought  his  sheep, 
The  Father  sought  his  child, 
They  followed  me  o'er  vale  and  hill, 
O'er  deserts  waste  and  wild. 
They  found  me  nigh  to  death, 
Furnished,  and  faint,  and  lone  ; 
They  bound  me  with  the  bands  of  love  ; 
They  saved  the  wandering  one  ! 
They  spoke  in  tender  love, 
They  raised  my  drooping  head, 
They  gently  closed  my  bleeding  wounds, 
My  fainting  soul  they  fed. 
They  washed  my  filth  away, 
They  made  me  clean  and  fair ; 
They  brought  me  to  my  home  in  peace,  — 
The  long-sought  wanderer  !  " 

It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  with  some  of  the  sincer- 
est  disciples  in  the  world,  misgivings  not  only  exist, 
but  even  take  up  a  defence  more  complex,  more  subtle, 
and  harder  to  yield  than  those  we  have  examined. 
Such  persons  know  indeed  that  religion  is  not  a  set 
of  legal  or  ethical  requirements.  They  tell  you  they 
do  not  expect  to  save  their  souls  by  keeping  all  the 


432         THE  PROMISE  AND  ASSURANCE 

commandments,  nor  by  anything  they  can  do.  That 
system  of  self-righteousness,'  or  judgment  by  merits, 
they  have  seen  through  and  left  behind.  Still,  they 
believe  that  acceptance  has  its  conditions,  and  these 
conditions  they  fear  they  have  not  fulfilled.  God's  for 
giveness,  Christ's  reconciliation,  are  not  given,  they  say, 
but  to  a  soul  that  really  seeks.  Progress  too  they  know 
to  be  a  law  and  test  of  conversion.  And  daily  they  sor 
row  with  conscientious  grief,  lest  their  faith  should  be  a 
delusion,  their  hopes  unfounded,  and  all  "  the  blessed 
ness  they  knew  when  first  they  saw  the  Lord,"  as  "  a 
dream  when  one  awaketh." 

Granting,  then,  the  value  of  whatever  earnest  self- 
examination  these  questionings  may  prompt,  granting 
that  there  are  conditions  and  tests,  and,  most  of  all,  that 
condition  which  consists  in  a  self-renouncing  consecra 
tion  once  for  all  to  God ;  yet  there  is  another  line  of 
thought,  equally  Scriptural,  equally  humble,  equally 
adapted  to  impart  energy  to  effort  and  fervor  to  prayer. 
It  starts  in  the  conviction  that  our  Father  coming  to  us, 
and  coming  for  us,  in  his  Son,  does  not  want  our  loss, 
but  our  gain  ;  not  our  destruction,  but  our  life  eternal ; 
not  our  performances,  so  poor  at  the  largest  to  his 
Infinitude,  but  our  affections,  confidence,  gratitude,  and 
such  earnest  service  as  these  filial  feelings  will  inspire. 
Christianity,  let  us  remember,  is  from  first  to  last  a 
divine  movement  in  our  behalf.  It  is  an  offer,  promise, 
compassion,  help,  redemption.  Love  for  us  was  the 
motive,  sacrifice  for  us  the  means,  and  an  opportunity 
to  pour  out  into  receptive  and  willing  hearts  the  same 
infinite  and  everlasting  affection  is  the  end.  Suppose, 
now,  any  soul  comes  to  feel  this,  and  believe  it.  Can  it 
then  believe  it  the  object  of  him  who  has  died  for  us 


OP   SANCTIFICATION.  433 

once,  to  thrust  us  back,  and  cast  us  away  ?  to  set  up 
measurements  of  exercise  for  our  new-born  and  thank 
ful  faith  ?  to  enter  with  captious  criticisms  into  the 
failures  and  shames  of  our  faltering  but  quite  earnest 
discipleship  ?  to  say  back  to  us  with  frigid  severity,  — 
"  Yes,  you  believe  or  try  to  ;  you  love  me,  or  you  think 
you  do ;  you  long  to  resemble  me  and  live  my  life,  or 
honestly  suppose  you  do  ;  yet  you  are  not  quite  up  to 
the  mark  I  require,  and  so  I  am  watching  to  catch  sight 
of  every  flaw,  and  score  every  shortcoming,  and  shall 
shut  the  entrance  against  you,  if  by  any  possibility  of 
justice  I  can  ?  "  Is  this  the  sound  of  the  Gospel  ?  Is 
this  the  language  of  a  Saviour  who  has  once  shed  his 
life-blood  to  recover  us  ?  Is  this  to  be  a  "  Door  "  and  a 
"  Light "  and  a  "  Good  Shepherd,"  to  his  own  feeble 
flock  ?  No  !  His  words  are  :  "  I  know  them,  and  they 
follow  me  ;  I  give  unto  them  eternal  life ;  they  shall 
never  perish  ;  neither  shall  any  man  pluck  them  out  of 
my  hand !  " 

Consider,  finally,  whether  all  this  undue  distrust, 
besides  being  far  less  nutritive  to  a  useful  and  active 
piety  among  men,  is  not  in  danger  of  holding  in  it  some 
ingratitude  and  irreverence  to  Him  whom  it  professes 
and  really  intends  to  honor.  Which  honors  him  most ; 
to  believe  that  he  will  keep  those  that  have  sincerely 
come  penitent  and  longing  to  him,  or  that  he  will 
scorn  them  ?  that  he  will  fulfil  his  promises,  or  break 
them  ?  When  shall  we  learn  this,  —  till  we  do  learn  it 
we  have  missed  the  one  deepest  and  most  special  and 
distinctive  thing  in  the  Gospel  of  our  redemption,  viz. 
—  that  Christianity  does  not  expect  of  us  to  be  perfect 
people  first,  in  order  that  we  may  be  entitled  to  salva 
tion,  nor  Christians  first,  in  order  that  we  may  earn 


434  THE   PROMISE   AND   ASSURANCE 

Christ  for  a  Saviour ;  but  quite  the  opposite  thing,  — 
that  we  should  believe  we  have  a  Saviour  in  order  to  be 
consciously  saved  ;  and  that  we  should  know  the  need 
ful  way  to  be  already  opened,  that  we  may  walk  in  it  by 
the  attraction  of  our  Leader's  spirit  ?  Every  miracle 
the  Saviour  wrought  on  earth,  every  sentence  he  spoke, 
every  pain  he  bore,  is  a  new  ground  of  assured  com 
fort  for  every  soul  that  has  once  come  heartily  to  him 
confessing,  "I  believe;  help  thou  mine  unbelief;"  or 
asking,  "  What  shall  I  do  that  I  might  work  the  works 
of  God  ?  "  Hear  his  explicit  answer :  "  This  is  the 
work  of  God,  that  ye  should  believe  on  him  whom  he 
hath  sent."  "  Whosoever  believe th  in  me,  though  he 
were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live."  "  Him  that  cometh  to 
me,  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out."  "  No  man  shall  pluck 
them  out  of  my  hand."  "  Why  art  thou  cast  down,  0 
my  soul  ?  and  why  art  thou  disquieted  within  me  ? 
Hope  thou  in  God,  for  I  shall  yet  praise  him  who  is  the 
health  of  my  countenance  and  my  God  !  " 

Whichever  way  you  look,  with  the  purpose  of  look 
ing,  you  see  persons  with  whom  you  are  confident  the 
one  strong  and  ruling  desire  of  life  is  to  be  Christlike, 
and  to  know  him  in  whom  they  believe,  yet  troubled, 
uncertain,  anxious,  —  and  very  often  painfully  anxious, 
about  their  acceptance  with  him.  Some  time  ago,  —  a 
year  or  years,  —  they  resolutely,  thoughtfully  took  up 
their  choice,  —  half  a  cross  and  half  a  recompense,  but 
all  a  joy,  —  and  yet  they  sometimes  return  to  the  beg 
garly  elements  of  the  question  whether  their  Master  will 
keep  that  which  they  then  committed  to  him  !  Does 
not  this  betray  some  erroneous  conception  of  the  very 
nature  of  his  faith,  putting  something  of  our  own  in 
place  of  him,  —  some  will- work  for  childlike  humility, 


OF   SANCTIFICATION.  435 

some   self-hood  instead  of  the  gracious  Spirit  whence 
every  good  thing  comes  ? 

To  each  of  these  the  Redeemer  tenderly  approaches, 
saying,  "  Fear  not ;  I  have  called  thee  ;  thou  art  mine  ; 
this  work  of  thy  great  redemption  is  done  ;  it  has  not  to 
be  done  again  ;  I  have  overcome  the  world  ;  be  of  good 
cheer.  Thy  work  is  first  to  believe,  and  then  out  of  thy 
faith,  impelled  by  holy  thankfulness  and  love,  undoubt- 
ingly,  to  do  daily  all  the  will  of  God  thou  knowest, 
which  shall  then  be  known  to  thee  more  and  more. 
That  which  makes  thy  work  effectual  is  the  Spirit  I 
have  given  thee,  and  the  pardon  with  which  I  have 
pardoned  thee.  Fear  nothing,  0  weary  and  troubled 
heart !  any  more.  Doubt  nothing  any  more.  Forget  the 
things  that  are  behind.  The  ascension  day  has  come. 
Thou  hast  an  advocate  with  the  Father.  Thinkest 
thou  not  I  have  as  much  desire  and  interest  to  keep 
thee  as  thou  hast  to  be  kept  ?  Already  thou  mayest 
say,  '  Abba,  Father  ! '  Peace  waiteth  for  thee.  Thy 
Lord  is  in  earnest  with  thee.  '  Behold  what  he  has  told 
thee  about  the  finished  work  of  thy  redemption.  Re 
turn,  and  be  at  rest.  Enter  again  thy  forgotten  home, 
and  take  thy  prepared  place,  for  all  things  are  now 
ready,  and  rejoice  with  them  that  rejoice  over  thee.' 
Fear  nothing.  I  have  called  thee  by  thy  name.  I 
know  my  sheep,  and  am  known  of  mine.  I  give  unto 
them  eternal  life.  No  man  shall  pluck  them  out  of  my 
hand ! " 


37 


SERMON    XXII. 

THE    SOCIAL    CONSCIENCE. 


CONSCIENCE,  I  SAY,  NOT  THINE  OWN,  BUT  OF  THE  OTHER.  — 

1   Cor.  x.  29. 


THE  form  of  the  expression  is  accommodated  and 
idiomatic.  Strictly  it  would  be,  "  Conscience,  not  only 
thine  own,  but  of  the  other  as  well."  For  it  is  only 
through  my  "  own  conscience  "  that  I  can  morally  re 
spect  the  conscience  of  that  "  other."  If  I  regard  his,  it 
must  be  by  obeying  my  own ;  and  my  thoughtfulness  for 
his  must  be  proportioned  to  the  sensibility  of  my  own. 

By  all  who  believe  that  there  is  any  such  thing  as  a 
moral  authority  for  human  life,  that  duty  is  a  word 
with  a  meaning,  and  that  responsibility  is  a  fact,  it  will 
be  granted  that  each  of  these  three  propositions  is  ap 
plicable  to  our  intercourse  and  connections  with  each 
other ;  that  is,  that  the  moral  significance  of  life  is 
nowhere  more  vitally  manifest  than  in  what  we  do  or 
fail  to  do  for  the  characters  of  our  neighbors ;  that  a 
large  part  of  what  is  included  in  the  term  duty  is  what 
we  owe  to  other  men's  welfare,  or  their  goodness,  which 
is  the  same  thing ;  and  that  society  presents  a  scene  of 
personal  responsibility,  peculiar  to  itself,  where  the  ma 
terials  of  judgment  are  always  accumulating. 

But,  as  in  other  cases,  so  here :  the  consent  to  a  gen- 


THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE.  437 

eral  statement  of  a  principle  is  one  thing,  while  a  cour 
ageous  loyalty  to  its  personal  requirements  is  another. 
There  may  be  a  wide  gap  between  the  storehouse  where 
we  keep  a  supply  of  respectable  abstract  notions  loosely 
laid  away  for  quotation,  —  something  between  the  ear 
nestness  of  conviction  and  the  inconvenient  disrepute  of 
scepticism,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  living  embodi 
ment  of  these  notions  in  a  self-denying  practice,  on  the 
other.  It  is  easy  enough  to  agree  that  we  ought  not 
to  weaken  and  damage  and  degrade  other  men's  con 
sciences  ;  but  to  give  up  the  gratification,  the  amuse 
ment,  the  pleasant  and  otherwise  harmless  habit,  which 
will  certainly  damage  and  mislead  them,  is  not  always 
very  easy.  Besides,  there  are  some  questions  of  right, 
how  far,  in  particular  cases,  this  ought  to  be  done,  or 
is  demanded  to  be  done.  These  questions  may  really 
complicate  the  matter  to  honest  minds;  or  they  may 
only  furnish  a  subterfuge  for  cowardly  and  evasive  na 
tures  to  escape  a  disagreeable  sacrifice,  without  at  the 
same  time  losing  all  self-respect  by  abandoning  the  gen 
eral  principle.  The  New  Testament  takes  pains  to  pro 
vide  directions  for  a  settlement  of  both  these  classes  of 
difficulties.  Whether  it  will  be  of  any  use  to  appeal  to 
that  source  of  instruction  will  depend  on  another  point, 
viz.  whether  we  have  determined  to  make  the  spirit  and 
word  of  the  New  Testament,  when  we  have  found  them 
out,  the  law  of  our  lives,  let  them  cut  in  upon  whatever 
comfort  or  indulgence ;  let  them  rebuke,  and  chasten, 
and  humiliate,  and  tax  our  fortitude  as  they  may. 

We  begin  with  the  broadest  obligation  belonging  to 
the  matter.  This  is,  that  every  man  shall  make  his 
relations  to  other  men's  characters,  and  the  effects  of 
his  actions  on  other  men's  actions,  a  direct  part  of  his 


438  THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE. 

regular  religious  culture.  It  shall  be  more  than  a  sen 
timent, —  a  concern;  and  more  than  a  speculation, — 
a  practice.  To  this  both  the  nature  of  the  case  and  the 
word  of  the  Gospel  agree.  On  the  ground  of  the  nature 
of  the  case,  it  can  be  denied  only  by  one  of  three  classes 
of  objectors.  It  may  be  consistently  denied  by  asceti 
cism,  by  indifferentisin,  or  by  the  mere  impulsive  theory 
of  morals.  A  monk,  or  rather  an  utter  anchorite,  might 
refuse  to  pay  a  religious  regard  to-  social  relations,  on 
the  ground  that  in  solitude,  as  a  higher  state  of  man,  the 
relations  do  not  exist.  A  thorough-going  indifferentist, 
or  practical  fatalist,  or  antinomian,  might  refuse,  on  the 
ground  that  the  result  of  things  is  beyond  the  influence 
of  ethical  distinctions  as  recognized  by  the  human  will. 
Or  a  believer  in  the  absolute  legitimacy  of  sheer  im 
pulse,  whether  sensual  or  supersensual,  might  object,  on 
the  score  of  the  philosophy  which,  in  professing  to  follow 
Nature  with  peculiar  fidelity,  confuses  her  legislation  of 
just  liberty,  and  turns  the  beauty  of  her  economy  and 
the  order  of  her  subordinations  into  a  mob  of  ungov- 
erned  desires.  These  three  are  intelligible  defences  of 
that  recklessness  of  other  men's  principles  which  denies 
that  we  are  answerable  for  our  influence  on  every  life 
of  those  around  us. 

Quite  as  clear  as  the  reason  of  the  case  is  the  word  of 
the  Gospel.  The  Christian  faith  is  eminently  a  social 
principle.  Its  ideas  are  social  ideas.  Its  development 
is  a  social  development.  It  contemplates  each  heart  as 
having  interdependencies  and  communications  with  its 
fellows.  The  forms  it  takes  on  are  domestic  and  asso 
ciative.  It  proposes  fellowship.  It  founds  a  church. 
It  advocates  the  common  weal.  It  is  always  asking, 
from  the  beginning,  of  every  cruel  Cain,  "  Where  is  thy 


THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE.  439 

brother  ?  "  It  calls  every  exclusive,  oppressive,  abusive, 
corrupting  community,  or  person,  to  account  for  the 
lost,  the  neglected,  the  betrayed,  the  weaker  members 
of  the  household.  It  says,  with  the  solemn  voice  of 
God,  "  Thy  brother's  blood  cries  from  the  ground,"  • 
the  blood  of  his  soul  no  less  than  of  his  body.  One  half 
of  its  twofold  commandment  is,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself."  If  it  declares,  in  one  breath,  that 
"  every  man  shall  bear  his  own  burden,"  in  the  next  it 
says,  "  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens."  It  predicts  an 
infinite  misery  for  them  that  tempt,  betray,  misguide, 
deprave  one  another,  —  for  them  that  form  companies, 
clubs,  societies,  to  make  each  other  frivolous,  profligate, 
dissolute.  It  treats  with  terrible  severity  any  one  that 
presumes  to  reply,  when  called  to  reckon  for  such  out 
rages,  "Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?"  virtually  rejoin 
ing,  "  Yes,  you  are ;  all  men  are  each  other's  keepers, 
educators,  helpers  or  hinderers,  saviours  or  seducers." 
It  requires  all  to  give  not  only  food,  clothes,  and  money, 
but  the  ministry  of  encouraging  words,  patient  endur 
ance,  honest  living,  aspiring  thoughts.  So,  negatively, 
it  forbids  theft  and  killing ;  and  if  we  study  the  whole 
religion  through  and  through,  we  shall  see  that  this 
means  the  robbery  of  any  particle  of  virtue,  honor,  tem 
perance,  truth, —  the  killing  of  the  spiritual  and  immor 
tal  part,  quite  as  much  as  the  theft  of  a  garment,  or  the 
murder  of  the  body  it  covers.  In  fact,  all  the  pages  of 
our  Book  of  Faith  are  marked  with  these  earnest  coun 
sels  and  expostulations  about  caring  for  other  souls.  It 
is  always  adjuring  us  to  work  for,  to  think  for,  to  suffer 
for  —  and  to  that  end  to  love  —  other  people.  Such  is 
the  compass  of  its  charity.  "Whether  it  commands  or 
forbids,  its  intent  is  the  same.  If  you  examine  both 

37* 


440  THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE. 

prohibitions  and  injunctions,  you  will  find  they  run  into 
each  other,  and  are  only  the  two  sides  of  one  bright 
truth,  —  the  positive  and  the  negative  being  only  meas 
urements  in  opposite  directions  of  the  universal  law  of 
affection  and  service.  The  lives  of  the  Apostles  were 
throughout  consecrated,  abstemious,  self-sacrificing  la 
bors  for  the  souls  of  their  fellow-men.  And  we  have 
only  to  look  into  any  period  of  the  earthly  ministry  of 
Christ  to  see  how  constantly  and  scrupulously  he  acted 
for  the  internal  state  of  those  he  met.  He  did,  and  re 
frained  from  doing,  he  spoke  and  kept  back,  he  came 
into  danger  and  went  away  from  it,  all  for  the  sake  of 
the  souls  of  others.  Nay,  his  whole  earthly  career,  his 
humiliation  into  a  body,  and  his  human  suffering,  are 
instances  of  what  a  true  and  faithful  Spirit  will  do  for 
human  need.  Suppose  he  had  said,  "  Why  should  I 
take  the  form  of  a  servant,  make  myself  of  no  reputa 
tion,  become  obedient  unto  death,  bear  the  ignominy  of 
the  Cross  ?  Men  must  live  according  to  the  laws  and 
condition  of  their  own  being.  My  communion  is  above. 
My  joys  and  tastes  are  heavenly ;  why  condescend  to 
these  miserable,  unintellectual,  uncultivated  creatures  ? 
They  have  their  own  pleasures,  associations,  their  own 
set  in  society.  Why  should  I  deprive  myself  of  some 
of  my  best  and  highest  enjoyments  for  them  ?  "  Do  we 
never  hear  language  a  little  like  that  about  us  here  ? 
His  doctrine  was  that  nothing  on  earth  or  in  heaven  can 
possibly  be  higher  than  serving,  lifting  up,  saving  the 
spiritual  life  of  God's  children  ;  and  that,  compared 
with  that,  all  social  fastidiousness  and  all  intellectual 
self-seeking  are  vulgarity  and  shame. 

Or  is  it  said  that  in  this  respect  the  Son  of  God  is  no 
example  for  us  ?    This  is  practical  infidelity,  —  to  make 


THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE.  441 

excuse  that  we  are  not  called  to  live  in  the  same  spirit 
in  which  our  Saviour  lived.  That  is  the  very  thing  we 
have  to  try  to  do  ;  and  if  we  try  devoutly  God  will  help 
us  to  it  more  and  more.  But  even  if  the  Master's  self- 
sacrifice  were  set  aside  as  too  exalted,  the  same  condem 
nation  of  our  letting  other  people's  virtue  take  care  of 
itself  would  come  down  from  every  nobler  and  holier 
life  of  his  great  followers  and  confessors  of  every  age. 
And  were  this  testimony  to  fail,  I  should  still  be  sure  of 
a  nearer  witness  to  the  essential  reality  of  the  doctrine, 
—  even  a  voice  speaking  in  the  loftier  moods  of  your 
own  breasts.  This  silent  decree  within  will  reaffirm 
the  living  oracles  of  the  Evangelists.  Together  they 
will  pronounce  him  to  be  the  only  truly  conscientious 
man  who  is  ever  applying  the  discriminations  of  his 
sense  of  right  to  new  regions,  new  connections,  new 
questions  of  conduct ;  and  will  pronounce  that  it  must 
be  a  very  limited  conscience  indeed  which  only  inquires, 
of  a  course  of  action,  how  it  will  affect  the  individual 
performing  it.  "  Conscience,  I  say,  not  thine  own,  but 
of  the  other." 

Now,  the  helps  men  render  to  one  another's  virtue 
are,  for  the  most  part,  rendered  without  any  express 
attempt  at  what  is  called  "  setting  an  example."  That 
is,  all  excellence  is  more  impressive  when  it  is  seen  liv 
ing  and  acting  by  a  certain  independent  force  from 
within  itself,  looking  for  its  motive  above  the  world, 
than  when  it  is  prepared  and  put  on  exhibition  for  a 
pattern.  At  the  best,  a  man  can  give  only  what  he  has, 
and  work  only  with  what  is  in  him.  To  begin  a  correct 
life  with  the  notion  of  being  a  model  is,  to  say  the  least 
of  it,  beginning  a  good  way  from  the  heart  of  the  mat 
ter,  and  is  likely  to  end  with  a  mere  surface  morality. 


442  THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE. 

In  agriculture  and  mechanics,  producers  do  sometimes 
raise  stock,  or  finish  fabrics,  merely  for  a  show  ;  and  ii' 
they  do  it  to  stimulate  other  brains  and  muscles  in  the 
line  of  their  profession,  it  is  plainly  more  honorable 
than  to  do  it  for  the  premium  or  the  admiration.  So 
it  is  higher  to  conquer  passion  for  the  sake  of  encour 
aging  other  strivers  for  that  mastery,  than  for  self-inter 
est,  or  a  politic  vanity.  But  goodness  is  a  more  delicate 
thing,  and  has  quite  another  nature  than  machinery  or 
animal  symmetry.  The  danger  is,  that  if  we  undertake 
to  manufacture  it  for  a  pattern,  we  shall  spoil  it  in  the 
making.  It  will  not  be  genuine.  The  very  idea  of 
making  it  a  spectacle  will  have  taken  the  authenticity 
out  of  it.  Pattern-behavior,  putting  the  foreign  effect 
before  the  spiritual  essence,  is  Pharisaic,  —  just  as  any 
declaimed  righteousness,  where  speech  gets  before  con 
viction,  is  cant.  When  words  are  felt,  or  sincere,  they 
instantly  and  infallibly  become  efficacious,  —  as  health 
always  is.  Of  Sterling's  saying,  "  First  realize  your 
cant,  then  put  it  off,"  the  last  half  is  not  wanted  ;  for 
cant  turned  into  reality  is  put  off  already ;  when  vital 
ity  or  sincerity  went  into  it,  the  thing  was  changed,  and 
it  ceased  to  be  cant.  Besides,  goodness  is  not  a  convey- 
able  or  merchantable  substance.  It  has  to  strike  its 
root  deep  in  an  individual  consciousness,  a  personal 
faith.  And  for  all  these  reasons,  men  are  very  far 
from  being  morally  acted  on,  to  the  best  purport,  by 
what  is  aimed  directly  at  them. 

But  this  does  not  at  all  deny  the  quick  sensibilities  of 
the  social  constitution,  nor  our  obligation  both  to  do 
some  things,  and  not  to  do  some  other  things,  out  of  a 
simple  regard  to  their  social  effects.  "  Thine  own  con 
science  "  is  not  thorouo-hlv  active,  unless  it  bears  a 


THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE.  443 

sacred  respect  to  the  conscience  of  the  "  other."  In 
fact,  the  case  seems  to  be  clearer  about  refraining  from 
what  will  injure  others,  than  about  doing  what  they 
may  imitate.  Christian  modesty  may  shrink  from  the 
thought  of  being  exemplary  ;  but  Christian  principle 
will  eagerly  renounce  what  is  hurtful.  Is  it  not  likely 
that  we  are  set  into  society  for  this  very  end,  that  by 
sacrifices  for  others'  moral  purity  as  well  as  their  physi 
cal  comfort,  —  by  relinquishing  some  pleasures  for  our 
brethren's  inward  as  well  as  outward  abundance,  we 
may  be  disciplined  into  a  more  Christlike  disinterested 
ness  ?  I  can  see  no  great  sense  in  the  maxim  of  Cecil, 
that  "  society  shows  us  what  we  are,  and  solitude  what 
we  should  be."  If  we  only  catch  up  its  overt  manifes 
tations,  its  current  criticisms,  or  look  into  the  mirror  of 
its  manners,  society  will  only  show  us  what  we  are,  and 
in  fact  very  imperfectly  show  us  that.  But  if  "we  look 
at  it  on  the  side  of  its  moral  powers,  and  moral  wants 
and  exposures,  it  will  eloquently  teach  us  what  we 
ought  to  be,  and  furnish  the  very  school  for  making  us 
that.  He  has  not  half  awaked  to  the  majesty  and  the 
mystery  of  his  being,  who  can  tolerate  in  himself  the 
atrocious  levity  of  living  as  if  the  integrity  of  his  com 
panion's  conscience  were  never  a  cause  for  the  abridg 
ment  of  his  own  pleasures. 

The  complicated  case,  undoubtedly,  is  where  some 
habit,  or  some  indulgence  of  taste,  or  some  gratification 
of  appetite,  is  felt  to  be  perfectly  safe  to  yourself,  but 
would  probably  be  unsafe  to  others  by  reason  of  their 
less  guarded  position  or  weaker  principles,  while  they 
are  the  more  likely  to  go  astray  for  your  practice.  There 
is  the  real  issue  and  strain.  Have  we  no  guide,  in  the 
Christian  teaching,  to  a  right  decision,  even  there  ? 


444  THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE. 

The  defence  set  up  for  a  continuance  of  the  gratifica 
tion  is  this :  4  Rules  of  meat  and  drink,  amusement  and 
display,  are  not  definite  nor  absolute.  Each  must  adjust 
his  habit  to  his  constitution  and  circumstances,  and 
stop  there.  Everything  is  likely  to  be  abused  that  is 
used.  I  cannot  look  after  all  abuses,  nor  people,  nor 
positions.  I  am  to  strike  out  a  way  of  living  that  seems 
lawful  enough  for  myself,  and  expect  everybody  else  to 
do  the  same.  I  am  not  the  appointed  guardian  of  my 
neighbors,  and  need  not  forego  what  I  consider  the 
good  things  of  life  lest  some  weaker  heart  should  be 
ensnared  or  enslaved  by  them.' 

This  answer  will  carry  different  degrees  of  plausi 
bility  to  different  persons.  Christianity  certainly  com 
ments  upon  it. 

In  the  first  place,  it  may  be  said,  without  argument, 
that  to  many  ears  this  language  has,  in  its  very  tone 
and  its  first  impression,  a  sound  of  hardness  and  self 
ishness.  A  certain  intuitive  moral  judgment  pronoun 
ces  that  it  is  not  the  final  nor  the  highest  view  of  duty  ; 
that,  whatever  the  truth  may  be,  this  is  not  the  whole  of 
it ;  that,  whatever  the  difficulty  may  be,  this  does  not  go 
to  the  bottom  of  it.  It  is  not  a  disposition  of  the  case 
that  satisfies  the  best  demands  of  a  self-denying  relig 
ion.  It  is  not  the  sort  of  response  we  expect  from  the 
nobler  order  of  men,  who  live  for  the  good  of  their  race, 
and  not  for  themselves,  —  live  before  their  times  and 
beyond  their  fellows, — prophets  and  apostles.  But 
this  is  only  an  appeal  to  sentiments,  which  may  not  be 
universal. 

Another  remark,  not  conclusive  but  pertinent,  is  that 
this  defence  is  not  one  very  likely  to  be  presented  by 
any  of  us,  where  the  party  endangered  by  our  gratifica- 


THE-SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE.  445 

tion  should  be  very  near  to  our  affections,  —  a  child,  or 
a  brother  by  blood.  There  the  gratification  would  prob 
ably  be  waived.  But  Christianity  recognizes  no  such 
limitation  of  responsibility  as  this :  it  declares  all  man 
kind  one  family ;  and,  by  the  lips  of  its  Divine  Founder, 
affirms  that,  for  the  purposes  of  doing  God's  will,  every 
human  being  is  a  mother  or  a  brother  or  a  sister. 

But  furthermore,  when  it  is  said  that  all  things  used, 
however  lawful,  must  be  abused,  let  it  be  remembered 
that  this  tendency  to  abuse  by  no  means  excuses  him 
who  so  uses,  beyond  the  line  of  actual  necessity  or 
imperative  duty,  that  the  abuse  comes  in.  If  "  offences 
must  needs  come,"  none  the  less  "  woe  to  him  by  whom 
the  offence  cometh."  The  question  now  is,  not  whether 
men  are  extremely  liable  to  do  wrong  on  occasion,  but 
whether  I  shall  add  to  that  liability  by  offering  a  fresh 
occasion,  and  under  the  plea  that  other  men  do  so,  or 
will  do  so,  if  I  do  not.  In  full  view  of  that  likelihood 
Christ  said,  "  It  were  better  for  a  man  that  a  millstone 
were  hanged  about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were  drowned 
in  the  depths  of  the  sea,  than  that  he  should  cause  one 
of  these  weak  ones  to  offend." 

And  further  still,  if  you  say  that,  so  long  as  your  act 
is  not  in  itself  wrong,  Providence,  in  the  general  ongo 
ing  of  affairs,  must  see  to  it  that  no  harm  comes  of  it : 
may  it  not  reasonably  be  put  back  to  you  that  Provi 
dence  is  quite  as  likely  to  see  to  it  that  no  harm  conies 
to  you  when  you  deny  yourself,  as  that  no  harm  comes 
to  those  weak  natures  when  your  self-indulgence  has 
tempted  them  ?  Besides,  when  we  speak  of  an  act  as 
"  right  in  itself,"  let  us  consider  what  is  included  in 
"  itself,"  and  take  in  all  its  necessary  elements  and  rela 
tions.  For  no  act  can  be  said  to  be  right  in  itself 


446  THE   SOCIAL    CONSCIENCE. 

which  is  so  done  that  the  spirit  of  the  doer  or  the 
situation  of  its  occurrence  binds  it  up  inseparably  with 
wrong. 

And  further  yet,  if  it  is  urged  that  nothing  ought  to 
be  given  up  which  makes  for  the  genial  and  happy  pro 
cesses  of  social  life,  —  then  let  it  be  fully  established 
that  the  practice,  the  luxury,  the  pleasure  in  question, 
does  belong  to  the  best  order  of  life,  and  is  essential  to 
it,  and  that  its  advantages  are  not  outweighed  by  the 
evils  that  spring  directly  out  of  it.  Above  all,  let  a  sol 
emn  examination  of  the  motives  and  sources  of  action 
make  it  clear,  whether  the  thing  is  really  done  from  a 
conscientious  and  comprehensive  regard  to  the  public 
good,  or  whether  that  is  only  an  afterthought  of  apol 
ogy,  —  a  sophistication  to  palliate  what  is  actually  done 
only  because  it  is  agreeable  and  entertaining. 

There  may  possibly  be  instances  —  let  it  be  granted 
—  where  the  mind  honestly  hesitates  whether  the  good  to 
be  done  by  a  compliance  with  a  luxurious  custom  will 
not  overbalance  the  possible  mischiefs  of  leading  others 
to  transgress.  But  if  the  foregoing  principles  are  kept 
steadily  before  us,  —  if,  in  every  such  emergency,  we  go 
directly  to  the  Master,  who  never  mistakes,  to  correct 
and  clear  up  our  moral  judgments  by  communion  with 
his  unselfish  and  blameless  soul,  we  shall  find  that  class 
of  perplexities  reduced  to  a  very  narrow  line.  And  if 
then  we  are  ready,  with  self-command  enough,  in  every 
case  that  is  only  doubtful,  to  resign  our  ease  or  enter 
tainment,  and  stand  on  the  side  that  is  sure  to  be  safe, 
rather  than  run  the  risk  of  putting  any  human  soul  on 
that  which  is  wrong,  if  we  make  and  keep  it  a  matter, 
not  of  inclination,  but  of  conscience,  we  shall  hardly  go 
far  astray,  —  "Conscience,  I  say,  not  only  thine  own, 


THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE.  447 

but  of  the  other,"  —  for  light  will  fall  from  the  uner 
ring  Sun  on  a  spirit  so  seeking  and  so  sincere. 

Let  us  now  set  over  against  the  defence  we  have  sup 
posed  the  following  words  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  —  sub 
mitting  it  to  each  hearer,  which  seems  to  ring  clearest 
from  the  heights  of  Christian  clearsightedness  and  truth, 
and  which  sounds  most  as  if  the  heavenly  testimony  was 
in  it,  —  "  None  of  us  liveth  to  himself,  and  no  man  dieth 
to  himself.  Let  us  therefore  judge  this,  —  that  no  man 
put  a  stumbling-block,  or  an  occasion  to  fall,  in  his  broth 
er's  way.  If  thy  brother  be  grieved  with  thy  meat,  now 
walkest  thou  not  charitably.  Destroy  not  him  with 
thy  meat,  for  whom  Christ  died.  It  is  good  neither  to 
eat  flesh,  nor  to  drink  wine,  nor  anything  whereby  thy 
brother  stuinbleth,  or  is  offended,  or  is  made  weak. 
When  ye  sin  so  against  the  brethren,  and  wound  their 
weak  conscience,  ye  sin  against  Christ.  If  meat  make 
my  brother  to  offend,  I  will  eat  no  flesh  while  the  world 
standeth.  For  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and 
drink,  but  righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy." 

The  more  frequent  obstacle  to  this  thoughtful  and 
generous  behavior,  at  least  among  decent  men,  is  the 
absence  of  any  glaring  evidence  that  our  luxuries  do 
tempt  our  neighbors.  What  is  the  delight  of  a  palate, 
or  of  an  amusement,  that  any  of  us  would  not  hurl  from 
him  with  all  the  intensity  of  disgust,  if  he  saiv  before 
his  eyes  one  fellow-creature,  however  weak  or  ignorant, 
who,  from  an  unhappy  childhood,  or  any  misfortune  of 
condition,  was  plunged  over  the  edge  of  safety  into  all 
the  shame  and  wretchedness  and  filth  of  profligacy  by 
a  questionable  liberty  of  his  own  ?  But  surely,  in  such 
a  matter,  a  doubt  is  grave  enough  to  dictate  a  Chris 
tian's  conduct.  A  very  earnest  moral  nature  will  not 


448  THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE. 

be  willing  to  imperil  a  fellow-creature's  purity  on  the 
slender  difference  between  a  conjecture  and  a  certainty. 
The  likelihood  of  a  poison  taking  effect  will  be  pon 
dered,  not  without  a  prayer  for  help.  And,  as  if  to 
assist  us  in  such  discoveries,  human  beings  are  often 
thrown  together,  in  such  local  connections,  such  close 
ness  of  contact,  and  such  peculiarity  of  relationship,  as 
to  bring  out  and  exhibit  plainly  these  mutual  interact- 
ings  of  moral  conduct  and  impression.  Of  that  kind  is 
every  collection  of  givers  and  receivers,  of  teachers  and 
pupils,  every  seminary  of  learning,  or  family,  or  class 
associated  for  a  common  pursuit.  There  spring  up  new 
obligations,  new  occasions  for  restraint,  new  calls  for 
cheerful  and  voluntary  sacrifices,  peculiar  to  the  struc 
ture  of  the  society.  He  that  does  not  feel  them,  or  is 
not  equal  to  them,  may  well  reconsider  the  fitness  of  his 
presence.  There,  too,  as  he  will  find  who  ever  takes 
pains  to  inquire,  these  influences  come  to  light.  The 
older  is  quoted  by  the  younger ;  the  more  advanced  by 
the  new-comer  ;  the  instructor  by  the  pupil.  There  the 
laxity  of  an  esteemed  acquaintance  is  made  to  take  sides 
with  some  appetite  that  burns  in  the  body.  There  the 
neglects  of  the  more  experienced  are  thrown  up  as 
shields  for  the  irregularities  of  the  novitiate.  There 
the  irreligion  of  the  mature  fosters  and  encourages  the 
recklessness  of  youth.  And  little  as  they  may  suspect 
it,  who  eat,  drink,  and  are  merry,  without  a  religious 
scruple  on  their  pleasures,  all  the  while,  in  many  a 
building  not  far  away,  the  beginnings  of  vice  are  tak 
ing  a  terrible  warrant  and  license  from  their  freedom. 
"  No  man  liveth  to  himself,  and  no  man  dieth  to  himself. 
Let  us  judge  this,  —  that  no  man  put  a  stumbling-block, 
or  an  occasion  to  fall,  in  his  brother's  way." 


THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE.  449 

Brethren,  there  is  no  self-denial  deserving  the  name 
that  is  not  willing  to  give  up  any  privilege  of  the  palate 
or  the  passions  rather  than  endanger  the  least  or  lowest 
of  God's  children.  And  then  if  it  is  demanded,  "  Why 
should  I  be  deprived  of  the  lawful  use  of  some  agree 
able  thing,  merely  because  some  less  guarded,  less  expe 
rienced,  or  less  coolly  constituted  neighbor  will  abuse 
it  ?  "  we  will  leave  the  ground  of  justice  altogether,  and 
come  upon  that  of  magnanimity  and  of  privilege.  We 
will  ask,  not  what  we  have  a  right  to  do,  but  what  is  to 
be  gladly  chosen  because  it  is  right  to  be  done.  In  the 
estimates  of  God  and  eternity,  the  generosity  that  shields 
a  human  heart  from  shame  will  stand  above  a  genial 
style  of  hospitality.  Xot  till  comfort  shall  become  the 
creed  of  Christendom,  can  free  living  be  the  testimony 
of  faith. 

After  all,  we  must  raise  our  minds  before  a  higher 
judgment  than  our  own.  We  need  not  terrify  ourselves 
with  an  imaginary  tribunal ;  it  is  enough  to  anticipate 
the  reality.  There  is  to  come  a  time  when  no  one  of 
us  will  be  satisfied  to  have  been  here  eating  and  drink 
ing  and  making  merry,  sporting  with  the  virtues  of  our 
companions,  quenching  the  better  life  of  those  for  love 
of  whom  Christ  was  willing  to  die,  or  entertaining  our 
selves  at  the  cost  of  their  integrity.  Again,  the  voice 
of  the  Lord  God  will  be  heard  at  the  end  of  the  day, 
asking  of  you  and  me,  "  Where  is  thy  brother  ?  "  How 
little  will  it  avail  us  then,  having  that  brother,  and  all 
the  past,  standing  revealed  before  us,  to  stammer  with 
the  impotent  mockery  of  self-defence,  "  Am  I  my  broth 
er's  keeper  ?  "  His  blood  will  cry  from  the  ground,  and 
Heaven  will  hear.  Whosoever  shall  cause  one  of  these 
to  offend,  it  were  better  that  a  millstone  dragged  him 


450  THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIENCE. 

Too  little,  too  little,  will  there  appear  in  that  day  of 
any  positive  achievements  of  ours  for  God  and  his  truth, 
proportioned  to  our  opportunity.  But  at  least  let  it  not 
be  found  that,  when  some  frail  fellow-creature  was  in 
clining  to  baseness  and  to  ruin,  any  frivolity  or  uncon 
cern  of  ours  made  his  downward  way  easier  and  swifter ; 
or,  if  any  other  soul  was  struggling  up  into  light  and 
victory,  that  our  faithlessness  discouraged  him,  our 
inconsistencies  confused  him,  our  self-love  drew  him 
back. 


SERMON    XXIII. 

CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND   HONEST  LEGISLATION.* 

FOR   HE   LOVETII   OUR    NATION,    AND    HATH    BUILT    US    A    SYNA 
GOGUE. —  Luke  vii.  5. 

THE  two  thoughts  are  joined,  not  accidentally,  not 
artificially,  but  by  a  natural  law.  In  the  habit  of  the 
Hebrew  mind,  which  was  speaking,  —  in  the  character 
of  the  public-spirited  officer  for  whom  that  praise  and 
that  plea  were  spoken,  —  those  ideas  lived  harmoniously 
together,  a  bond  of  organic  unity  between  them,  and 
each  more  vital  for  the  other.  By  the  march  you  have 
just  made  from  the  State-House  to  this  sanctuary,  you 
have  given  another  deliberate  confession,  and  offered 
one  more  public  symbol,  that  both  ideas  were  true,  and 
that  their  mutual  relation  is  a  truth  also.  The  love  of 
country  and  reverence  for  God  ;  their  conjunction  here 
was  no  rhetorical  device,  nor  local  Judaistic  sentiment, 
but  a  permanent,  philosophical,  unchangeable  reality. 
It  was  not  a  fact  then  for  the  first  time,  or  the  last. 
No  matter  though  the  centurion  was  a  citizen  only  by 
adoption.  The  association  was  just  as  vivid,  for  that, 

*  Delivered  before   His   Excellency   Henry   J.   Gardner,    His   Honor 
Henry  "W.   Benchley,  the   Honorable   Council,    and   the  Legislature  of 
Massachusetts,   at  the   annual   Election,    Wednesday,   January  6,  1858. 
38* 


452   CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

between  the  people's  good  and  the  worship  of  the  Most 
High.  It  is  not  the  rule,  but  it  happens,  — it  happened 
then,  —  that  the  foreigner,  by  the  very  freshness  with 
which  the  genius  of  an  advanced  economy  salutes  him, 
and  by  its  contrast  with  oppressive  institutions  that  he 
has  outgrown,  enters  farther  into  its  real  meaning  than 
the  sluggish  and  sordid  native.  Probably  the  centurion 
was  more  profoundly  imbued  with  the  central  life  of 
the  Hebrew  system  than  many  of  the  straitest  of  the 
Pharisees.  It  seems  he  was  discontented  with  Pagan 
ism,  and  found  his  aspirations  encouraged  and  his  affec 
tions  attracted,  by  the  sublime  monotheism  of  Moses ; 
it  seems  he  loved  a  slave,  and  was  so  catholic  as  to  be 
stow  his  liberality  on  a  nation  of  which  he  was  not 
born  ;  it  seems  he  was  so  modest  and  reverent  as  to 
shrink  from  letting  the  Lord  of  life  come  under  his 
roof.  These  are  not  slight  nor  provincial  virtues,  in 
any  age  or  land,  certainly  not  too  common  in  our  own. 
Nor  ought  it  to  surprise  us  to  find,  in  a  nature  so  lofty 
and  comprehensive,  a  practical  faith  that  patriotism  and 
religion,  —  the  State-House  and  the  synagogue, — be 
long  together. 

"We  can  go  farther  yet.  Down  at  their  lowest  roots 
and  life-springs,  these  principles  not  only  interlock,  but 
become  essentially  one  and  the  same.  Patriotism,  that 
is,  when  it  is  a  principle,  and  not  a  mere  blind  instinct 
of  the  blood,  is  an  outgrowth  and  a  part  of  the  faith  and 
honor  of  the  Almighty.  Analyze  it,  and  you  will  see  it 
so.  For  patriotism  is  only  disinterested  devotion  to  the 
justice,  the  power,  the  protection,  the  right,  embodied, 
after  a  certain  fashion  and  degree,  in  the  State  and  its 
subjects.  It  is  not  attachment  to  the  parchment  of  a 
constitution,  to  the  letter  of  an  instrument,  to  the  visi- 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.    453 

ble  insignia  of  authority,  to  a  strip  of  painted  cloth  at  a 
masthead,  to  a  mass  of  legal  precedents  and  traditions, 
nor  always  to  the  person  of  the  sovereign.  It  is  not  a 
personal  interest  in  the  people  of  the  nation,  for  the 
most  of  one's  fellow-citizens  are  unknown,  and  the  few 
that  are  met  may  awaken  no  special  regard.  Instituted 
ideas,  —  as  justice,  power,  protection,  —  organized  into 
a  national  government,  and  lifted  up  for  the  defence  of 
the  country,  arc  what  inspire  an  intelligent  loyalty,  and 
the  same  ideas  have  their  perfect  embodiment  in  the 
person  of  God.  On  the  other  hand,  religion,  veneration 
for  the  Creator,  involves  a  consistent  regard  for  the  wel 
fare  of  great  bodies  of  his  family.  By  the  laws  of  the 
human  nature  he  has  fashioned,  this  will  mount  to  en 
thusiasm,  as  our  relations  to  any  one  body  grow  inti 
mate,  or  look  back  to  an  antiquity,  or  own  a  history  of 
common  sufferings.  Less  elevated  elements  may  inter 
mix.  But  whichever  you  take  first,  —  the  feeling  for 
the  State,  or  for  the  God  of  States,  —  the  other  clings 
to  it,  and  comes  logically  with  it.  . 

So  the  State,  through  you,  its  temporary  representa 
tives  and  civil  ministers,  bends  here  to-day  before  the 
Ruler  of  rulers.  Legislation  comes  to  the  Church,  not 
primarily  to  hear  a  sermon  from  a  man,  but  to  adore 
the  Supreme  Lawgiver,  and  to  supplicate  light.  Our 
fathers,  best  builders  of  empire,  on  the  whole,  that  the 
world  has  ever  seen  since  the  great  Emancipator  of 
Israel  compacted  a  commonwealth  of  fugitives,  of  which 
Jehovah  was  the  head,  —  our  fathers,  taking  that  for 
their  model,  when  they  ordained  this  ceremony  of  Elec 
tion  worship,  believed  in  it.  With  them  the  ceremony 
was  a  faith.  If  it  ever  sinks  into  a  mere  routine,  — the 
ghastly  effigy  of  a  departed  sincerity,  —  it  will  be  be- 


454   CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

cause  some  generation  has  not  honesty  and  courage  tc 
drop  the  form  with  the  life,  but  is  willing  to  keep  credil 
with  superstition  by  continuing,  for  considerations  o: 
policy,  a  sanctimonious  pageant  out  of  which  the  sou' 
has  ebbed  away.  For,  saying  nothing  either  of  religior 
or  of  patriotism,  it  is  only  when  man  is  emptied  of  his 
manliness,  that  he  consents  to  go  through  a  solemn  per 
formance  that  is  emptied  of  its  heart.  And,  let  it  be 
added  just  here,  when  there  are  cant  and  make-believe 
at  Church,  it  will  not  be  strange  if  presently  there  are 
fraud  and  falsehood  at  the  State-House ;  for  it  car 
scarcely  be  expected  with  reason  that  men  who  under 
take  a  deception  on  the  Omniscient^  and  act  a  parl 
before  themselves,  will  be  restrained  from  overreaching 
one  another,  and  cheating  the  people. 

I  have  no  occasion,  therefore,  to  wander  far  for  m) 
subject.  It  lies  before  me  in  your  coming  here,  and  we 
are  shut  up  to  it.  I  have  to  speak  first  of  the  personal 
character  of  a  Christian  citizen,  and  then  of  the  honesl 
legislator  ;  and  since  it  is  the  blessing  of  our  system 
that  citizen  and  legislator  are  united  in  one,  —  oui 
rulers,  as  the  prophet  put  it,  being  of  ourselves,  and 
our  governors  proceeding  from  the  midst  of  us,  —  the 
one  of  these  topics  will  pass,  by  a  natural  transition 
and  progress,  into  the  other. 

I.  Nor  need  I  detain  you  with  much  amplification 
on  the  propensity  in  all  partially  Christianized  states  of 
society  to  separate  what  are  here  joined,  —  to  divorce 
public  affairs,  that  is,  from  the  control  of  the  Gospel, 
and  so  to  unchristianize  government.  Such  a  tendency 
may  be  briefly  disposed  of  in  this  way.  If  it  will  stand 
out  in  the  light  and  defend  itself,  —  and  not  merely 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.      455 

creep  under  the  poor  shelter  of  an  unthinking  timidity, 
or  an  irrational  selfishness,  —  it  must  pursue  one  of 
three  lines  of  argument ;  for  there  is  no  fourth  for  it. 
It  must  maintain  either,  1.  That  religion  is  inferior  to 
politics,  as  an  interest  of  humanity,  —  which  would  be 
virtual  atheism,  —  a  denial  of  God,  as  God,  supreme  ; 
or,  2.  It  must  maintain  that  religion  and  politics  are 
naturally  hostile  to  one  another,  the  admission  of  relig 
ious  obligation  damaging  political  success,  —  which  is 
practical  infidelity,  i.  e.  a  denial  of  the  absolute  character 
which  religion  takes  in  the  teaching  of  Christianity  ;  or 
else,  3.  It  must  maintain  that,  while  both  are  legitimate 
ideas,  and  capable  of  being  represented  by  legitimate 
institutions,  their  provinces  are  distinct,  and  their  ob 
jects  best  achieved  by  keeping  them  apart ;  which,  so 
far  as  it  is  not  atheistic  and  infidel  both,  is  simply  ab 
surd  ;  because  it  amounts  to  saying  that,  a  man,  or  a 
community  of  men,  can  have  such  a  thing  as  a  Chris 
tian  character  separate  from  those  vital  social  relations, 
and  those  duties  of  life  in  which  the  character  is  formed. 
So  much  of  attempts  to  wrench  asunder  what  the  Divine 
constitution  of  things  has  married  into  one,  and  what, 
as  I  said,  were  one  in  the  centurion  of  the  text,  as  in 
every  Christian  citizen. 

But  what  is  more  deserving  of  your  careful  notice, 
because  a  truth  apt  to  be  disguised  by  subtler  kinds  of 
sophistry,  is,  that  every  such  attempt,  whether  open  or 
occult,  ends  practically  in  the  first  of  the  three  errors 
just  supposed,  —  i.  e.  in  subordinating'  the  claims  of  re 
ligion  to  the  claims  of  politics,  —  which  then  instantly 
become,  by  that  act,  false  and  vicious  politics.  When 
a  people  begin  to  sever  their  obligations  as  Christians 
from  their  obligations  as  citizens,  it  is  never  long  before 


456      CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

the  first  class  of  obligations  become  secondary,  and  they 
are  ready  to  break  the  laws  of  God,  in  managing  the 
machinery  that  dispenses  the  offices  and  patronage  of 
the  State.  God  and  Mammon  never  become  co-ordi 
nate  powers,  nor  even  enter  into  treaty ;  and  as  soon 
as  any  department  of  life,  like  political  action,  bereaves 
itself  of  religious  guidance,  it  becomes  at  once  unmiti 
gated  mammon.  If  they  divide,  religion  sinks  into  a 
mere  client.  Because,  there  are  always  commercial 
advantages  which  Government  is  able  to  multiply,  and 
material  interests  which  it  can  secure,  —  trade,  ustom- 
houses,  corporations,  post-offices,  public  works,  legal 
protection  to  property,  —  and  these  will  be  had  at  any 
rate,  by  men  who  are  willing  to  turn  religion  into  a 
corner,  or  lock  it  up  in  a  meeting-house. 

In  such  a  sense  as  this,  the  subjection  of  the  Church 
to  the  State  is  a  mischief  of  much  larger  extent  than 
the  theory  technically  known  by  that  name.  In  the 
time  of  the  civil  wars  in  England,  the  doctrine  took 
a  specific  shape,  and,  reaching  out  from  its  Germanic 
origin,  formed  a  British  sect  that  made  it  known  to 
history.  But  there  is  a  virtual  Erastianism,  where 
there  is  no  church  establishment,  and  no  crown  to 
wrangle  for  its  patronage.  Let  the  Church  represent 
the  Christianized  life,  power,  and  principles  of  a  people  ; 
and  let  the  State  represent  those  regulations  that  pro 
vide  for  the  external  welfare  of  society,  —  which  was 
Mr.  Webster's  definition,  —  and  there  has  been  no  age 
when  the  State  has  not  aggressed  upon  the  Church. 
For  there  has  been  no  age  when  men's  outward  com 
fort  has  not  seduced  their  conscience  ;  no  country 
where  grasping  passions  have  not  made  war  upon 
righteousness ;  no  people  in  the  whole  period  since 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.     457 

the  office-seeking  sons  of  Zebedec  applied  for  places 
at  the  right  hand  and  left  of  the  expected  Prince, 
down  to  the  city  of  Washington  as  it  has  looked  since 
the  first  of  December,  in  which  multitudes  have  not 
been  more  willing  to  attest  their  affection  for  their 
nation  by  accepting  its  emoluments,  than,  like  the  cen 
turion,  by  building  its  synagogues. 

And  yet  what  warrant  is  afforded,  either  by  expe 
rience,  or  by  the  word  of  Heaven,  or  by  the  nature  of 
things,  for  supposing  that  national  safety  is  compatible 
with  any  less  strictness  of  moral  life  than  individual 
safety  is  ?  or  that  those  retributive  rules  of  God,  which 
require  the  loss  of  power  as  a  penalty  for  the  abuse  of 
privilege,  which  drag  every  secret  abomination  to  judg 
ment,  linking  sin  to  damnation,  will  be  somehow  evaded 
by  masses  of  men,  while  they  hold  for  men  one  by  one  ? 
as  if  God's  hand  were  too  unskilful  to  feel  through  the 
intricacies  of  a  crowd,  or  his  eye  so  infirm  as  to  be  be 
wildered  by  the  pompous  iniquity  of  office  !.  Whenever 
America  shall  be  thoroughly  committed  to  a  line  of 
policy  that  rejects  those  officers  which  are  peace  and 
those  exactors  which  are  righteousness ;  whenever  it 
shall  resign  the  election  of  its  law-makers  and  rulers 
into  the  hands  of  cunning  cabals,  to  the  chicane  of 
talkative  persons  whose  only  principle  of  suffrage  is  a 
determination  to  put  certain  labelled  candidates  in, 
right  or  wrong,  and  to  keep  certain  proscribed  candi 
dates  out,  wrong  or  right,  —  so  giving  over  its  Capitol 
and  Cabinet  to  brawling  tongues  and  embezzling  fin 
gers  ;  whenever  it  shall  consent  to  seat  on  the  high 
Bench  of  Justice  political  debaters  instead  of  Judges 
of  the  Law,  and  to  take  from  that  Bench  sophistries 
and  special  pleas  of  partisan  self-interest  instead  of 


458     CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

impartial  interpretations  of  the  Constitution,  —  when 
ever  it  lifts  to  power  those  who  care  more  for  the 
world's  applause  and  money  than  for  God's  worship, 
so  violating  the  condition  given  in  the  text,  then,  in 
fallibly  shall  the  warning  also  of  the  context  be  fulfilled. 
Enemies  shall  come  from  the  East  and  West,  and  God 
shall  take  away  the  kingdom  from  you,  and  give  it  to  a 
nation  bringing  forth  the  fruits  thereof. 

God  knows  who  can  be  trusted.  Bad  governments 
seem  to  succeed  for  a  while  ;  but  their  fame  only  lifts 
them  up  into  a  more  conspicuous  post,  that  the  mock 
ery  of  their  coronation  and  fall  may  be  more  widely 
instructive.  For  the  permanence  of  power  there  needs 
a  select  sacramental  band,  and  enough  to  control  the 
community,  of  brave-hearted,  God-fearing,  consecrated 
men,  —  needs  these  more  than  the  amplest  revenue,  the 
most  splendidly  appointed  navy,  the  mightiest  fortifi 
cations,  or  the  loftiest  roofed  arsenals.  If  "  saints " 
meant,  as  ijb  ought  to  mean,  men  of  manly  righteous 
ness,  and  not  men  of  cunning  or  cruel  piety,  we  might 
all  join  the  Fifth  Monarchists,  and  pray  for  "  the  reign 
of  God's  people."  The  best  system  of  national  defence 
is  the  organization  of  character.  No  State-House  pre 
sents  a  venerable  front,  after  it  becomes  a  nest  of 
unclean  birds,  —  demagogues  who  have  bartered  their 
principles  to  get  there,  or  carried  them  there  for  a 
market.  If  Congress  is  to  be  the  country's  council,  — 
or  indeed  if  it  is  to  leave  any  country  long  to  be  coun 
selled  for,  —  you  must  stock  it  with  hearts  whose  faith 
is  vital,  and  not  traditional,  in  the  justice  of  Almighty 
God.  No  judiciary  can  decree  law  or  equity  from  a 
durable  bench,  if  the  men  that  sit  there,  however 
learned  or  large  of  brain,  have  forgotten  that  they 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.     459 

are  themselves  forever  on  trial  at  the  great  assize  of 
eternity.  It  is  little  that  the  members  of  a  cabinet 
talk  in  twenty  tongues,  or  issue  diplomatic  papers  that 
rouse  domestic  pride  and  foreign  jealousy,  if  they  never 
speak  the  one  simple  language  of  childlike  hearts  to 
the  Father  of  Truth,  with  whom  lies  are  abominations. 
And  what  is  spiritual  law  for  the  president  and  his 
secretaries,  for  judges  and  legislators,  is  law  for  the 
humblest  of  the  subjects.  It  will  be  seen  yet,  truly 
as  the  maxims  of  passing  dynasties  and  parties  must 
be  adjourned  for  the  ideas  of  the  New  Testament,  that 
every  faithful  disciple,  standing  in  his  lot  for  the  com 
mand  to  love  God  and  man,  is  a  better  patriot  than  the 
statesman  who  seeks  every  kind  of  honor  but  that  which 
comes  from  on  high.  For  the  statesman  ought  also, 
and  first,  to  be  Christ's  man;  patriotism  without  Chris 
tianity  is  not  a  strong  sentiment ;  he  who  has  resolved 
to  stand  on  the  side  of  God  is  the  best  friend  of  his 
country  that  any  country  can  have  ;  and  there  is  no 
earthly  country  good  enough  to  be  loved  safely,  except 
the  love  of  it  be  hallowed  by  faith  in  a  better  country, 
even  an  heavenly. 

In  this  spiritual  sense,  not  by  an  ecclesiastical  or  pre- 
latical  control,  the  State  is  really  but  a  dependent  on 
the  society  of  Christ.  Instead  of  the  church  being  a 
subaltern  to  the  government,  government  is  ancillary 
to  the  church.  The  church  is  the  religion  of  Jesus 
organized,  of  all  sects  where  faith  in  Jesus  is,  going 
forth  to  redeem  and  bless  humanity  with  the  heavenly 
doctrines  of  freedom,  equality,  holiness,  and  love.  Has 
the  civil  State  any  higher  function  than  that  ?  Has 
any  empire  so  exalted  a  sovereign  ?  So  far  the  theo 
cratic  idea  is  just,  that  every  nation  should  have  God 


460      CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

for  its  acknowledged  Ruler,  and  make  every  custom 
and  institution  in  it  loyal  to  that  heavenly  supremacy. 
We  can  imagine  no  loftier  conception  of  human  society 
than  that.  Every  avenue  of  the  national  life  should  be 
a  channel  for  the  free  course  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  every 
legislature  a  school  of  practical  theology,  every  court 
house  a  solemn  vindicator  of  the  oppressed,  and  every 
city,  village,  and  home,  a  nursery  of  strong  and  beauti 
ful  souls. 

II.  Christian  citizenship,  then,  is  the  true  founda 
tion  of  national  greatness.  But  who  are  Christian 
citizens  ?  Something  more  definite  and  determined 
than  mere  men  of  compliance  with  the  conventional 
decencies  of  civilization,  —  not  mere  "  barbarians  in 
broadcloth." 

Something  more  is  necessary  to  being  the  citizen  of 
a  Christian  State  than  barely  living  in  it.  Because  I 
tread  under  my  feet,  as  I  go  about  my  private  business, 
a  certain  soil  which  has  been  marked  off  by  surveyors, 
and  called  by  the  geographic  name  of  Massachusetts, 
and  because  I  avail  myself  of  its  various  local  provisions 
for  the  more  advantageous  pursuit  of  certain  selfish 
ends,  do  I  therefore  deserve  to  be  recognized  as  one 
of  the  State's  proper  citizens  ?  In  matter,  mere  physi 
cal  presence  constitutes  a  claim  to  be  called  by  a  local 
name.  Holyoke,  whatever  the  character  of  the  pros 
pect  from  it,  is  a  Massachusetts  mountain ;  and  Co- 
chituate,  whether  its  waters  be  pure  or  foul,  is  a  Mas 
sachusetts  lake,  —  as  a  quantity  of  building  materials 
fashioned  into  a  dwelling  within  the  limits  of  this  city 
makes  a  Boston  house.  So,  for  the  mere  purposes  of  a 
census,  or  for  the  assessment  of  a  capitation-tax,  or  for 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.     4G1 

convenience  of  description,  it  may  be  said  of  a  person 
that  he  is  a  Massachusetts  man,  irrespective  of  his  con 
victions  or  his  character,  his  loyalty  or  his  treachery. 
But  you  will  see  that  the  moment  you  take  up  such  a 
designation  for  thoughtful  reflection,  or  a  sober  analysis, 
you  must  make  it  cover  something  besides  the  bare  fact 
of  inhabiting.  You  can  apply  the  term  citizenship, 
then,  only  to  such  as  possess  a  certain  Massachusetts 
spirit,  and  are  morally  assimilated  to  the  genius  of  the 
State's  institutions. 

We  shall  begin  at  a  safe  point  if  we  say  that  the  first 
qualification  consists  in  an  intelligent  understanding  of 
the  principles  which  the  government  organizes,  and  of 
the  ideas  which  it  represents.  Every  political  institu 
tion  is  the  visible  exponent  of  an  invisible  thought. 
Every  charter,  compact,  bill  of  rights,  written  law-book, 
or  established  custom  of  civil  administration,  is  an  at 
tempt  to  realize  in  practice  some  idea  in  the  governing 
mind.  If  that  governing  mind  is  an  autocrat,  or  even 
monarch,  you  will  have  embodied  the  idea  of  irrespon 
sible  dominion,  or  pure  despotism,  like  the  old  eastern 
tyrannies,  or  like  modern  Russia,  where  only  the  small 
est  check  is  imposed  by  the  prerogative  of  the  nobles. 
If  it  is  a  landed  aristocracy,  of  caste,  conquest,  or 
hereditary  rank,  you  will  have  Feudalism,  as  in  the 
middle  ages.  If  it  is  a  combination  of  royal  preroga 
tive  and  popular  will,  you  have  a  limited  monarchy, 
with  parliament  and  crown,  as  in  Great  Britain.  If  it 
is  a  majority  of  the  people,  you  have  a  limited  democ 
racy,  .as  with  ourselves.  Sometimes  this  central  and 
radical  idea  of  the  government  is  formally  set  forth  in 
a  declaration,  as  with  a  constitutional  power  like  the 
United  States.  Sometimes  it  is  expressed  only  in  the 


462     CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

aggregate  of  usages,  precedents,  and  maxims  of  an  em 
pire,  or  of  some  petty  court  or  chieftain's  castle.  But 
whether  its  utterance  be  direct  or  indirect,  in  words  or 
practices,  it  does  somehow  get  uttered,  and  by  its  con 
sequences  it  is  felt.  The  business  of  an  historical  stu 
dent  is  not  merely  to  learn  the  outward  succession  of 
events,  the  sayings  and  doings  of  the  several  kingdoms, 
but  it  is  to  comprehend  those  hidden  principles  lying 
below  the  surface  like  seeds  under  the  ground,  out  of 
which  empires  and  their  epochs  have  germinated,  and 
sprung  up,  opening  their  beneficent  or  baleful  foliage, 
bearing  their  nutritious  or  poisonous  fruit. 

So  also  of  the  present.  It  is  one  thing  to  go  through 
the  mechanical  functions  of  voting  for  law-makers  year 
by  year,  or  obeying  laws  after  they  are  made,  and  quite 
another  to  enter  into  an  intelligent  apprehension  of  the 
great  thoughts  which  lived  in  the  minds  of  the  men 
"by  whom  the  whole  structure  of  the  government  was 
founded,  and  which  still  live  in  the  heart  of  the  govern 
ment  itself.  It  is  this  last  which  every  man  ought  to 
have  attained  before  he  is  worthy  to  be  regarded  as,  in 
any  lofty  acceptation,  a  citizen. 

Libanius,  quoted  by  Montesquieu,  says,  that  at 
Athens  a  stranger  who  intermeddled  with  the  assem 
blies  of  the  people  was  punished  with  death.  If  this 
was  summary  and  cruel,  it  proved  the  sanctity  attached 
to  political  action,  —  the  faith  that  a  distinctive  civil 
education  was  indispensable  to  it,  —  that  the  popular 
sources  of  power  should  be  kept  pure,  and  thus  it  at 
tested  the  reality  of  the  democratic  profession.  An 
illegal  vote  was  usurpation,  and  ignorance  was  a  milder 
form  of  rebellion. 

I  am  not  referring  here  to  the  advantages  of  a  gen- 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.     463 

eral  education.  I  accord,  of  course,  heartily  with  all 
that  can  be  argued  in  behalf  of  that.  There  can  bo  no 
right  citizenship  at  this  day  without  intellectual  activ 
ity.  But  over  and  beyond  this  I  insist  on  the  impor 
tance  of  a  special  branch  of  science,  —  of  a  better 
understanding  of  the  fundamental  principles  which  un 
derlie  and  animate  our  political  system.  Proudly  as  we 
boast  of  our  promiscuous  cultivation,  I  believe  that  we 
are  in  great  danger  of  national  damage  from  indiffer 
ence  just  at  that  point.  We  take  too  much  for  granted. 
We  are  driven  to  the  ballot-box  once  a  year  in  gangs,  by 
little  knots  of  self-constituted  leaders  in  caucuses,  who 
mean,  by  indirect  process,  to  dictate  the  votes  and  take 
the  offices.  Or  else  we  follow  some  party  champion,  who, 
let  him  know  never  so  much,  is  certainly  not  endowed 
with  a  vicarious  knowledge  that  shall  atone  for  our  igno 
rance,  and  who  may  possibly,  on  the  very  theatre  where 
he  has  gained  his  experience  and  his  eloquence,  have 
encountered  temptations,  too  strong  to  be  resisted,  to 
imbibe  the  duplicity  and  the  trickery  of  a  demagogue. 

I  would  have  every  child,  therefore,  carefully  and 
conscientiously  taught  those  distinctive  ideas  which  con 
stitute  the  substance  of  our  constitution,  and  which 
determine  the  policy  of  our  politics.  He  should  know 
wherein  his  own  government  differs  from  other  govern 
ments.  He  should  be  able,  on  his  own  information, 
and  not  depending  on  any  interested  meddler,  to  tell 
when  there  is  a  departure  from  the  true  course,  where 
an  abuse  begins,  and  where  a  peril  threatens.  And  to 
this  end,  there  ought  forthwith  to  be  introduced  into 
our  common  schools  a  simple,  comprehensive  manual, 
adapted  to  juvenile  minds  and  to  the  whole  country, 
whereby  the  needed  tuition  should  be  planted  at  that 

39* 


464     CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

early  period.  It  is  absurd  that  our  pupils  should  go  on, 
through  the  whole  term  of  their  preparation  for  life, 
committing  the  rules  of  a  grammar,  the  facts  of  geog 
raphy,  and  the  calculations  of  arithmetic,  to  the  total 
neglect  of  the  principles  of  the  legislation  under  which 
they  are  to  live,  of  the  facts  of  the  country  to  which 
they  belong,  and  of  the  constitution  of  their  liberties. 
It  may  be  the  low  instinct  of  a  money-making  age  to 
desire  only  a  knowledge  how  to  reckon  profit  and  loss. 
But  will  it  not  be  at  least  as  sensible,  and  far  more  pa 
triotic,  to  covet  an  acquaintance  with  those  grand  laws 
of  social  order  and  protection  under  which  all  our  traf 
fic  is  prosecuted,  by  which  all  our  prosperity  is  shield 
ed,  and  which  alone  can  make  any  successful  or  honor 
able  enterprise  possible  ? 

Among  us,  a  neglect  of  this  sort  of  culture  is  without 
excuse.  It  is  made  so,  equally  by  the  freedom  of  op 
portunity,  guaranteed  by  all  the  arrangements  of  our 
educational  apparatus,  and  by  the  simplicity  of  the  gov 
ernment  itself,  which  is  to  be  studied.  An  Austrian 
peasant,  a  Russian  serf,  Italian  lazzaroni,  have  a  plausi 
ble  apology  for  being  in  the  dark  respecting  the  laws 
they  live  under,  for  the  laws  themselves  are  kept  in  the 
dark ;  and  then  the  subject  is  held  so  far  under  them, 
that  he  cannot  lift  himself  up  to  look  at  them.  In 
some  of  these  cases,  no  school-house  door  stands  open 
to  him ;  a  stifled  press  defrauds  him,  or  a  mercenary 
one  hoodwinks  him ;  an  "  Index  Expurgatorius  "  screens 
from  him  what  he  most  wants  to  know,  and  tyranny 
silences  the  instruction  which  he  has  the  best  right  to 
hear.  To  say  that  it  is  otherwise  with  us,  is  only  to 
repeat  the  commonplace  of  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  election  sermons.  Yet  professional  and  trading 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.     465 

politicians,  for  purposes  of  their  own,  have  the  effron 
tery  to  tell  us  that  nobody  is  fit  to  legislate,  nor  to  form 
parties,  nor  to  discourse  on  public  matters,  but  those 
who,  like  themselves,  hold  a  professional  key  to  the 
secret.  Doubtless,  if  legislation  consists  in  making  the 
many  the  tools  of  promoting  a  few,  if  drilling  parties  is 
tantamount  to  framing  a  conspiracy  of  plunder,  and  if 
discoursing  on  public  matters  is  the  art  of  compounding 
falsehood,  detraction,  and  insolence,  then  they  may  be 
left  to  enjoy  a  monopoly  of  political  science.  Such 
characters  flourish  among  us,  — just  as  the  rankest 
weeds  :grow  in  the  fattest  soil,  —  for  the  very  reason 
that  our  admirable  system  of  government  is  so  well  able 
to  go  alone,  that  the  consequences  of  individual  apathy 
are  slow  to  appear.  But  those  consequences  will  not  be 
postponed  forever  ;  the  everlasting  laws  of  national  ret 
ribution  are  not  to  be  defeated  :  ignorance  and  careless 
ness  are  seeds  that  will  yield  their  harvest  of  calamity 
and  shame. 

The  next  qualification  for  good  citizenship  I  mention 
is  a  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  the  government.  There 
needs  a  feeling  in  the  heart  for  one's  country,  as  well  as 
a  comprehension  of  its  presiding  principles  and  its  in 
forming  ideas  by  the  intellect ;  because  a  nation,  which 
is  only  a  kind  of  collective  and  conscious  person,  has, 
in  some  sort,  a  heart  of  its  own,  as  well  as  a  brain,  — 
and  so  a  characteristic  temper,  or  quality,  to  be  loved 
or  hated,  to  be  sympathized  with,  or  repelled  by.  It  is 
on  this  moral  sympathy  between  citizen  and  govern 
ment,  that  loyalty  and  patriotism  depend,  hardly  less 
than  on  intelligence.  You  know  how  loyalty  is  roused 
to  enthusiasm,  how  patriotism  flames  up  into  an  ardent 
passion,  at  the  sight  of  a  national  edifice,  fortification, 


466     CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

ship,  or  the  sound  of  national  airs  or  watchwords. 
There  is  no  intellectual  process  in  these  cases,  —  no 
deliberate  recurrence  to  ideas,  —  but  a  sudden  rush  of 
feeling,  a  throb  out  of  the  heart.  Hence  the  mere  sen 
timent  of  loyalty,  half-blind  but  enthusiastic,  has  often 
been  found  most  impetuous  and  most  heroic  in  those 
periods  of  the  world  and  those  states  of  society  when 
there  was  little  thinking,  but  an  abundance  of  feeling. 
Still,  any  government  is  weak  which  has  not  this  vital 
sympathy  between  the  spirit  of  its  institutions  and  the 
spirit  of  the  citizens. 

Now  it  often  happens  in  a  State,  as  it  does  in  a  family, 
that  individuals  are  found  in  it  who  are  out  of  all  nar- 
mony  with  its  prevailing  sentiments.  There  is  mere 
physical  presence,  —  but  a  moral  discord,  an  absence, 
or  alienage,  of  the  heart.  The  body  is  native,  but  the 
soul  foreign,  — and  needing  some  other  naturalization 
than  a  formal  oath  of  allegiance  or  subscription  before 
a  magistrate.  Wherever  there  is  one  or  more  of  such 
uncongenial  inmates  in  a  family  there  is  a  chill  on  the 
intercourse  of  the  household,  an  iceberg  in  its  sunny 
climate.  And  wherever  there  is  such  an  element  of 
estrangement  and  distrust  in  a  State,  there  must  be  so 
much  hindrance  to  its  prosperity,  so  much  material  for 
disorganization  in  trying  times.  It  reminds  us  of  what 
De  Maistre,  by  one  of  his  lively  paradoxes,  calls  France, 
at  one  period  of  her  history,  —  "A  republic  without 
republicans." 

In  this  country  we  are  exposed  to  two  classes  where 
this  want  of  sympathy  has  a  tendency  to  appear.  One 
is  a  class  of  essential  anti-republicans,  partly  monarch 
ists  and  partly  aristocrats,  sometimes  cast  in  upon  us 
by  accident,  and  sometimes  growing  up  among  us  by 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.      4G7 

anomaly.  People  are  found  in  our  democratic  society 
who  belong,  by  natural  affinity,  under  a  transatlantic 
emperor,  among  ultramontane  ecclesiastics,  or  back  in 
the  feudal  centuries.  They  are  full  of  the  pride  of 
caste,  full  of  hereditary  ambition,  coveting  exclusive 
privileges,  fond  of  badges  of  rank,  absolutists  in  their 
real  notions,  and  ridiculously  contemptuous  of  their  fel 
lows  who  suffer  external  disadvantages.  Such  persons, 
however  democratic  their  professions,  have  no  more 
place  here  than  a  cardinal's  hat  has  in  a  Methodist 
meeting,  simply  because  they  are  out  of  all  affinity  with 
the  inmost  life  of  the  land.  If  they  have  their  way, 
unrestrained  by  custom  or  policy,  they  yoke  the  weak 
and  the  poor  into  a  vassalage,  they  pamper  their 
estates  and  add  splendor  to  their  equipage  out  of  the 
earnings  of  the  laborer,  they  would  toss  up  their  caps 
for  a  bold  and  conceited  adventurer  with  a  crown  of 
gems  on  a  brainless  head,  or  they  would  institute  a  self 
ish  oligarchy,  taking  good  care  to  be  themselves  inside 
its  counsels.  A  great  many  restraints  may  keep  this 
class  from  ever  openly  acknowledging  themselves ;  but 
they  are  none  the  less  out  of  all  hearty  fellowship  with 
the  true  spirit  of  the  country,  and  are  bad  citizens. 

There  is  another  class,  who,  instead  of  being  anti- 
republicans,  are  ultra-republicans ;  or  rather  they  are 
disorganizes  and  destructionists,  and  so  are  as  truly 
anti-republicans  as  their  opposites  ;  for  their  wild  and 
irresponsible  notions  are  incompatible  with  any  order  or 
law,  and  so  are  among  the  worst  enemies  a  legitimate 
democracy  has  to  dread.  The  main  desire  of  this  class 
is  a  total  solving  of  all  restraints  on  the  passions  and 
the  individual  will.  Their  first  postulate  is  that  every 
body  is  as  good  as  anjbody.  The  liberty  they  lust  after 


468     CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

is  liberty  to  swallow  their  fill  at  the  first  stall, —  the  lib 
erty  of  untamed  animals. 

There  grows  up  among  us  an  excessive  and  morbid 
individualism,  begetting  an  arrogant  irreverence.  It 
obstructs  domestic  discipline,  going  down  into  the 
brains  of  young  children,  and  inflaming  in  them  a 
prurient  eagerness  to  spurn  at  parental  authority.  It 
runs  into  destructionist  speculations  on  theories  of  so 
cial  order.  It  caricatures  the  generous  conceptions  our 
national  existence  grew  from.  It  writes  an  egotistical, 
fevered,  passionate,  foolish  literature.  It  rallies  mobs. 
It  perverts  democracy  into  demonism.  It  longs  for  no 
Christian  republic,  but  a  wild  riot  of  the  lusts  in  its 
heated  blood.  Sometimes  it  sits  in  its  study  and  phi 
losophizes  unbelief;  sometimes  it  haunts  a  German 
beer-shop,  —  sometimes  a  reckless  pulpit ;  sometimes  it 
simmers  in  social  bogs  and  fogs  ;  sometimes  it  sparkles 
brilliantly  on  the  top  of  the  rocks.  Everywhere  it  is  a 
traitor  and  a  rebel  to  the  country,  and  because  it  spoils 
the  Christian  citizen,  robs  the  nation  of  its  rights. 
Construe  independence  to  mean  an  unlimited  license  to 
do  as  you  please,  and  instead  of  the  just  arbitraments  of 
law,  with  precedents  and  experience,  calm  adjustment 
and  sober  equity,  you  retreat,  at  best,  upon  the  sum 
mary  instincts  of  the  injured  party,  and  the  matches  of 
brutal  violence.  Paul,  of  Russia,  when  a  French  am 
bassador  incidentally  spoke  to  him  of  some  man  of  con 
sequence  in  St.  Petersburg,  instantly  and  impatiently 
replied,  "  There  is  no  man  of  consequence  in  this  em 
pire,  save  the  man  with  whom  I  happen  at  any  moment 
to  be  speaking,  and  so  long  only  as  I  am  speaking  to 
him  is  he  of  consequence."  Where  every  man  in  the 
nation  feels  himself  of  the  size  of  an  emperor,  that  laii- 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.     400 

guage  will  be  in  the  bearing  if  not  the  mouth  of  all  the 
crowd.  And  what  is  impertinence  in  manners  soon 
becomes  insubordination  in  temper.  It  is  the  misfor 
tune  of  all  liberal  movements  to  attract  about  them 
malcontents  and  radicals.  Such  false  alliances  try  the 
strength  of  a  government.  If  it  takes  up  this  crude 
ingredient,  wisely  regulates  it,  converts  it  and  assimi 
lates  it,  it  is  strong.  But  if  the  disordered  matter 
proves  too  much  for  the  digestive  energy  of  the  consti 
tution,  and  remains  discordant,  then  it  poisons  the 
whole  health  of  the  body. 

A  third  qualification  for  a  right  citizenship,  besides 
an  understanding  of  the  principles  of  the  government 
and  a  sympathy  with  its  spirit  is  a  practical  respect  for 
the  operation  of  its  forms.  One  might  suppose,  indeed, 
that  where  the  first  two  exist  the  third  must  necessarily 
follow.  I  think  we  do  find  instances,  however,  where 
the  government  is  both  understood  and  loved,  while  its 
regular  and  necessary  functions  are  treated  with  a  neg 
lect  amounting  very  nearly  to  contempt.  Because  the 
forms  are  free,  and  the  acts  are  voluntary,  it  does  not 
follow  that  they  are  trivial,  but  the  contrary.  Among 
us  respect  for  the  government  is  shown  in  performing 
all  the  primary  duties  that  attend  the  right  of  suffrage. 
Our  early  fathers  certainly  enjoy  a  reputation  for  dig 
nity  quite  as  high  as  we  can  emulate  ;  yet  they  did  not 
deem  it  beneath  them,  whatever  their  station,  to  take 
the  most  active  participation  in  all  the  initiatory  steps  of 
an  election.  Those  of  our  citizens  who  stand  aloof  from 
the  little  local  meetings  and  movements  which  are  the 
fountains  of  all  democratic  power,  are  actuated  by  a 
very  false  view  of  their  responsibilities,  or  else  by  a  very 
foolish  pride ;  and  they  are  handing  over  the  reins  of 


470     CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

rule  or  misrule,  as  fast  as  they  can,  into  the  fingers  of 
jobbers  and  charlatans.  Neither  business,  nor  pleasure, 
nor  unconcern,  nor  disgust  at  vulgar  proceedings,  nor 
any  other  cause  ought  to  deter  you  from  this  duty.  If 
it  does,  the  country  holds  you  chargeable  for  its  dis 
grace,  and  you  are  not  good  citizens. 

III.  So  we  pass  up  from  the  citizen  to  the  legisla 
tor,  which  two,  by  the  felicity  of  our  system,  meet  in 
the  same  person,  —  the  citizen-legislator. 

Nothing  belongs  more  precisely  to  this  occasion,  than 
a  fresh  conviction  of  the  necessity  of  a  high  personal 
character,  in  the  public  makers  of  law,  to  the  honor 
and  safety  of  the  Commonwealth.  Let  us  not  be  de 
ceived.  There  are  laws  of  moral  influence  and  moral 
life,  above  those  that  are  voted  and  recorded,  so  in 
wrought  into  man  and  his  institutions  by  the  Eternal 
God,  that  nothing  can  tear  them  out  without  dislocat 
ing  the  joints  of  the  structure,  and  nobody  can  break 
them  without  being  an  "  architect  of  ruin."  One  of 
these  is,  that  wrong  principle,  in  every  workman  whose 
work  is  moral,  creeps  over,  and  subtly  spreads  itself,  to 
contaminate  and  damage  the  thing  he  works  in.  Now, 
the  legislator's  work  is  largely  moral.  It  has  constantly 
to  do  with  the  everlasting  distinction  between  right  and 
wrong.  It  professes  to  guard  and  foster  equity  and 
truth.  It  is  the  avowed  organ  of  justice.  It  is  the 
terror  of  evil  doers,  and  the  praise  of  them  that  do  well. 
It  touches  the  most  sacred  interests  of  society.  Its  spe 
cial  and  legitimate  sphere  is  rectitude,  peace,  order, 
between  man  and  man.  It  deals  with  the  very  first 
demonstrations  of  overt  integrity  and  systematic  moral 
ity,  so  far  as  external  measures  can.  Nor  are  the  laws 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.     471 

merely  an  enactment  and  execution  of  the  moral  con 
victions  of  a  people,  as  is  so  often  implied  :  they  are  an 
indirect  but  effectual  educator  of  these  convictions  also, 
constantly  forming  the  public  conscience,  and  raising 
or  lowering  the  tone  of  moral  life.  They  are  not  only 
an  expression,  but  an  influence,  —  not  only  a  sign  of 
morals,  but  a  power  upon  them. 

Now,  a  business  so  august  and  so  sacred  as  that 
cannot  be  intrusted  to  any  but  good  men,  —  righteous 
men,  —  sound  at  heart,  right  with  God,  true  to  hu 
manity,  —  men  that  can  neither  be  bought  off,  nor 
reasoned  off,  nor  frightened  off,  nor  flattered  off,  from 
the  simple  and  immutable  right. 

The  State  and  the  law,  persons  and  property,  educa 
tion  and  industry,  marriage  and  life,  are  not  safe  in  the 
hands  of  any  other  order  of  men.  You  say,  good  laws 
may  be  made  by  unprincipled  men.  So  may  pious  ser 
mons  be  preached  by  a  Godless  clergy.  But  that  does 
not  affect  the  truth,  that  down  at  the  secret  channels  of 
things,  and  finally,  in  the  long  run,  up  on  the  open 
fields  of  history,  what  man  is  works  itself  into  what 
man  docs  —  spirit  determines  life  —  principles  shape 
institutions.  Public  virtue  does  not  graft  nor  grow  on 
personal  iniquity.  Men  do  not  gather  figs  of  thistles, 
nor  of  a  bramble-bush  grapes,  nor  of  tricky  and  profane 
legislators  a  noble  and  Christian  State. 

True,  the  form  of  the  government  is  by  no  means  a 
matter  of  indifference.  Here  it  is  not  likely  to  be  un 
derrated.  Yet  personal  character  will  sometimes  over 
ride  even  the  sharpest  distinctions  in  that,  and  it  is 
certainly  a  grander  element.  A  Mexican  republic  can 
hardly  be  pronounced  better  than  an  English  monarchy. 
Unless  we  live  in  some  consistency  with  the  pure  ideas 

40 


472     CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

out  of  which  the  Revolution  sprang,  we  shall  have 
gained  no  more  by  a  change  of  rulers  thaTi  Rome 
gained  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins.  Despotism 
may  be  "  democratized,"  but  it  is  still  despotism.  A 
people  may  destroy  their  tyrants  without  destroying 
tyranny ;  so  the  Romans  did ;  but  they  cannot  corrupt 
their  law-makers  without  debilitating  their  laws. 

See,  by  a  little  careful  notice,  how  the  mischief 
results,  and  why  a  Massachusetts  legislator  should  be 
practically,  as  well  as  nominally,  an  honest,  Christian 
man.  First  of  all,  you,  whom  the  people  have  chosen 
to  represent  them  in  the  government  are  set,  in  some 
measure,  to  be  exponents  of  public  virtue.  An  au 
thority  is  committed  to  you.  Each  of  you  in  his  own 
town,  village,  or  city,  is  marked  by  his  election  as  a 
man  that  may  be  trusted.  Responsibility  widens  with 
respect.  The  young  look  to  you  for  example.  The 
unsteady  quote  your  practice.  If  you  are  self-indul 
gent,  mean,  coarse,  double-tongued,  you  will  harm  your 
neighborhood  on  a  larger  scale,  you  will  diffuse  corrup 
tion  with  a  more  fatal  facility,  and  to  a  heavier  judg 
ment,  for  your  office. 

Again,  a  legislator's  personal  sins  disgrace  the  insti 
tutions  he  tampers  with  in  the  eyes  of  the  community, 
and  so  they  are  unpatriotic  as  well  as  impious.  Rev 
erence  for  the  appointments  of  law  is  certainly  not  too 
common.  It  declines  alarmingly.  The  generations  are 
not  growing  up  with  an  excess  of  loyalty.  For  this 
waning  veneration  toward  the  dignity  of  government, 
the  "  powers  that  be,"  the  place,  the  assemblies,  the 
processes  of  governmental  control,  it  is  for  you  to  con 
sider  how  far  the  bearing  of  official  persons  is  account 
able.  You  say,  institutions  may  be  revered  whether 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.     478 

their  managers  are  noble  or  vulgar.  But  it  happens 
that  men  are  influenced  by  the  living  representatives 
and  spokesmen  of  things,  quite  as  much  as  by  the 
things  themselves.  Mental  association  is  a  fact ;  and 
a  government  is  judged  by  the  governors. 

Thirdly,  moral  weakness  blunts  the  intellectual  per 
ceptions.  Every  time  a  man  is  false  to  the  highest 
leading  of  his  soul,  he  dwarfs  his  mind.  Law-makers 
need  every  faculty  their  Creator  gave  them,  and  in 
something  better  than  the  natural  condition, —  sharp 
ened,  stimulated,  made  solid  and  strong.  Measures 
come  before  you  that  require  the  mind's  nicest  touch 
and  boldest  stroke,  —  the  keenest  discrimination  and 
the  firmest  grasp,  —  the  quick  insight  and  the  patient 
reason.  These  are  intellectual  abilities  that  go  only 
with  habits  of  truth,  temperance,  chastity,  honesty. 
The  man  that  drags  himself  up  to  his  seat  after  a  night 
of  convivial  carousing,  his  brain  still  foggy  and  his  eyes 
vacant  with  the  profligacy  that  has  drenched  his  soul, 
is  no  fit  servant  to  stand  for  the  interests  of  man  or  the 
powers  ordained  of  God,  —  among  wise  statesmen  or 
pure  patriots,  —  in  the  encounters  of  dignified  debate, 
or  the  difficulties  of  entangled  times.  Clearsightedness 
of  the  head  waits  in  the  end  on  clearsightedness  of  con 
science.  The  sentence  of  retribution  against  that  evil 
work  may  not  bo  executed  speedily,  but  it  comes  at 
last.  The  voluptuary  will  not  abrogate  the  immutable 
penalty.  God  is  the  God  of  our  whole  life.  Pure 
waters  of  pure  fountains.  Never  wisdom  out  of  folly ; 
never  right  by  compromise  or  collusion  with  wrong. 
The  cunning  and  selfish  bargainer  of  the  shop  and  the 
market,  the  farmer  that  cheats  in  weight  or  measure, 
the  fraudulent  mechanic,  the  lawyer  that  makes  excep- 


474     CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION^ 

tions  in  Heaven's  command  of  truth  for  professional  lies, 
the  exorbitant  money-lender,  the  gambling  broker,  — 
all  these  will  carry  their  disordered  natures  and  their 
mutilated  honor  with  them  to  the  legislature,  and  there 
they  will  barter  away  rectitude  and  themselves  for  fees 
or  votes.  Then  a  carnival  of  the  appetites  will  supplant 
the  dignities  and  sterner  joys  of  our  beginnings  ;  then 
we  shall  be  ashamed  to  recur  to  our  ancestral  annals, 
just  as  the  Roman  authorities,  of  a  corrupted  age,  were 
afraid  to  show  the  populace  the  old  code  of  Numa,  after 
it  had  been  dragged  from  its  obscurity,  lest  the  palpable 
inconsistency  should  rouse  indignation  into  rebellion ; 
then  pleasure  will  become  the  scandalous  substitute  for 
patriotism, — just  as  enervated  Athens,  when  truth  and 
honor  were  lost,  "  dreaded  Philip,  not  as  the  enemy  of 
her  liberty,  but  of  her  luxury,"  —  or  as  the  emasculated 
subjects  of  Augustus,  angry  at  his  severities,  quelled 
their  factions,  and  were  tamely  pacified,  when  he  let 
Pylades,  the  comedian,  come  back  to  make  sport  for 
them  in  the  theatre.  It  will  avail  nothing  that  we 
have  built  up  a  splendid  prosperity,  and  that  our  num 
bers  have  increased  eightfold  since  we  were  a  people 
and  a  power.  Numbers  and  property  and  territory  are 
as  effectual  to  break  an  overgrown  and  corrupt  policy 
to  pieces  as  to  confirm  a  sound  one ;  and  we  shall  sink 
under  a  law  of  God  framed  before  Numa  meditated, 
or  Philip  fought,  or  Columbus  sailed.  My  friends,  you 
will  see  the  ancient  glories  of  our  Commonwealth  re 
stored,  just  as  far  as  you  restore  the  scrupulous  con 
science  and  the  righteous  character  —  and  with  them 
the  high-bred  manners  and  commanding  thought  —  of 
those  men  who  approached  the  magistrate's  trust  with 
awe,  as  a  temple  holy  to  the  Lord. 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.     475 

Would  to  Heaven  we  could  only  realize  this  simple 
and  everlasting  law  of  moral  life  ;  that  the  stream  can 
not  rise  above  the  fountain  !  There  is  an  unsightly 
spectacle,  not  unknown  in  our  own  legislative  annals. 
In  some  fitful  mood  of  conscience,  of  philanthropy,  a 
people,  or  its  representatives,  legislate  some  measure 
altogether  beyond  the  average  and  common  level  of 
their  moral  life.  What  then  ?  How  long  can  such  a 
statute  stand  ?  What  will  be  its  efficacy  while  it 
remains  ?  Statute-book  and  people  both  are  only 
disgraced  presently  by  a  retreat  into  their  inferior 
morality.  Anybody  that  professes,  in  creed,  or  in  civil 
decree,  above  its  faith,  is  guilty  of  cant,  if  not  of  hy 
pocrisy,  and  its  life  silently  eats  out  the  heart  of  its 
written  law.  We  do  nothing  effectually  but  what  we 
do  from  the  full  head-waters  of  honest  conviction. 
Bring  up  the  personal  sources  of  goodness,  and  your 
acts  will  put  on  a  consistent  grandeur. 

The  complaint  appears  to  gain  emphasis  and  cur 
rency,  that  both  in  the  National  and  the  State  bodies, 
the  course  of  independent  and  impartial  legislation  is 
seriously  obstructed  by  the  use  of  ambiguous  machin 
ery,  and  by  appeals  to  sordid  motives.  I  do  not  profess 
to  know  the  absolute  or  the  relative  reason  for  this  com 
plaint.  This,  however,  is  certain,  and  challenges  con 
sideration  ;  within  a  few  years  past,  in  our  State  legis 
lature,  the  subject-matter  of  legislation  has  undergone 
a  remarkable  change.  There  is  a  vastly  increased  pro 
portion  of  private  bills  —  measures  that  look  to  the  im 
mediate  interests  of  individuals  or  corporations.  At 
the  last  regular  session,  considerably  more  than  half  the 
Acts  and  Eesolves  were  of  this  nature.  Partly  this  is 
inevitable  ;  with  the  passage  of  time,  the  growth  of 


476     CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION, 

commonwealths,  general  laws  get  settled.  The  same 
advance  calls  into  being  an  increased  number  of  special 
enterprises,  seeking  the  protection,  or  patronage,  of  the 
State.  Obviously  there  comes  in,  with  this  tendency, 
an  accumulating  temptation  to  external  interference 
with  the  opinions,  judgments,  consciences  of  senators 
and  representatives.  This  needs  no  proof.  The  lobby 
speaks  for  itself,  and  whatever  may  be  said  of  its  tac 
tics,  its  geography  needs  no  description.  Now,  let  it  be 
granted  that  gross  bribery,  that  open  and  direct  bids  of 
money  or  of  custom  in  business,  are  rare.  Granted  that 
in  this  honorable  body  of  men  before  me,  there  is  not 
one  that  would  not  spurn  such  an  approach  away  from 
him  as  an  atrocious  insult  to  his  manhood,  and  with 
shame  and  pity  for  the  depravity  capable  of  proposing  it. 
Much,  I  say,  yet  remains  behind  all  that.  It  remains, 
I  suspect,  proverbially  and  notoriously  true,  that  a  bill 
is  by  no  means  secure  which  is  left  simply  and  solely  to 
its  merits.  It  remains  proverbially  and  notoriously 
true,  that  not  a  few  measures  are  no  sooner  proposed, 
than  a  systematic  arrangement  and  plan  of  attack  are 
made  to  carry  it,  without  or  within,  by  other  appeals 
than  those  to  the  clear  judgment,  the  unbiased  will, 
the  impartial  and  honest  sense  of  the  members.  Com 
mittees  may  be  packed,  weeks  beforehand ;  prejudice 
may  be  enlisted ;  base  passions  —  envy,  jealousy,  ava 
rice  —  kindled.  Make  what  allowance  or  qualification 
you  please.  If  such  things  happen  only  once  in  a  ses 
sion,  it  is  cause  for  anxiety  and  alarm.  Or,  make  the 
case  one  of  pure  hypothesis ;  your  notice  of  the  matter 
will  still  be  profitable. 

Remember,  then,  first,  that  every  possible  question, 
proposition,  grant,  charter,  or  measure  whatsoever,  that 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.     477 

can  come  before  you,  has  in  it  the  elements  of  right  or 
wrong,  justice  or  injustice,  and  is  to  be  judged  by  you 
accordingly,  and  not  by  any  inferior  judgment.  Re 
member  that  it  is  as  true  to-day  as  in  the  days  of  the 
Hebrew  legislator,  that  "  a  gift,"  that  is  a  bribe,  "blind- 
cth  the  wise,"  and  that  the  capability  of  being  bribed  has 
ever  gone  with  treachery,  signalized  a  decaying  state, 
and  has  been  held  the  sure  precursor  of  anarchy  and 
overthrow.  Remember  that  bribery  is  none  the  less 
bribery  for  coming,  not  in  the  shape  of  gold  or  bank 
notes,  but  in  that  of  an  electioneering  lift,  or  a  profes 
sional  assistance,  or  a  supper  party.  Surely  it  must  be 
a  strange  and  intolerable  morality  that  distinguishes 
whether  the  price  of  dishonor  is  paid  into  an  itching 
palm,  or  on  to  a  proud  pair  of  shoulders,  —  paid  to  a 
man's  pocket,  or  his  politics,  or  his  palate.  Financial, 
political,  professional,  convivial,  they  are  all  of  one  de 
bauched  and  accursed  brood. 

I  know  it  may  be  said,  many  measures  are  brought 
forward  that  seem  to  have  no  specific  quality  of  good  or 
evil ;  it  is  immaterial  whether  you  vote  for  or  against 
them ;  you  do  not  see  far  enough  into  them,  or  trace 
them  out  to  such  consequences,  as  to  make  it  an  imper 
ative  duty  to  favor  or  to  oppose  them,  and  so  you  may 
follow  your  own  interest  in  doing  the  one  or  the  other. 
This  seems  to  be  taking  refuge  from  moral  responsi 
bility  in  intellectual  stupidity.  But  it  will  not  serve,  in 
fact,  in  logic,  or  in  ethics.  The  truth  is,  no  measure 
proposed  is  thus  indifferent.  Every  one  you  ought  to 
countenance,  or  you  ought  to  oppose.  Understood,  the 
bill,  however  small,  will  reveal  that  positive  character. 
And  to  begin  to  tamper  with  your  power  of  discrimina 
tion,  your  legislative  fidelity,  your  private  manliness,  by 


I 
478     CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

balancing  off  your  own  interest  or  your  pet  project  with 
some  fellow-member's,  —  helping  your  railroad  in  the 
western  county  by  supporting  his,  justified  or  not,  in  an 
eastern  one  ;  carrying  a  bank  charter  at  home  by  help 
ing  out  an  infirm  bridge-corporation  for  your  neighbor ; 
or  making  an  insurance  company  in  the  city,  or  next 
autumn's  canvass,  pay  the  way  of  a  company  where  you 
are  a  stockholder,  or  your  nephew  is  a  director,  or  your 
political  friend  wants  to  be  president,  —  all  this  is  to  pro 
nounce  yourself  below  the  level  of  the  moral  dignity  of 
your  place.  These  are  only  the  tempter's  plausibilities, 
—  Satan  transformed  into  the  angel  of  mutual  accom 
modation.  More  than  that,  it  is  just  as  profligate,  and 
just  as  dishonest,  to  be  hired  to  run  from  your  seat, 
when  a  vote  is  to  be  taken,  as  to  be  hired  to  stay  there 
and  vote  on  the  wrong  side,  only  in  that  case  you  add 
the  meanness  of  a  coward,  with  the  ignominy  of  a  tru 
ant  and  a  trimmer,  to  the  guilt  of  a  knave.  Gentle 
men,  whatever  else  we  lose,  let  us  cling  to  our  brave, 
unspotted,  ancestral  honor.  No  one  measure  can  possi 
bly  be  put  before  you,  by  governor's  message  or  people's 
petition,  in  all  this  session,  so  vital,  so  momentous,  so 
supreme,  as  that  principle.  Imagine  James  Otis  and 
Samuel  Adams  foisting  projects  through  the  forms  of 
law  by  mutual  compensation  !  Imagine  John  Adams 
and  Benjamin  Lincoln  dodging  a  vote  !  You  must  par 
don  the  half  profane  hypothesis.  And  that  you  may 
spare  the  State  a  reproachful  contrast,  take  care  that 
the  time  never  come  to  us,  when  it  can  be  said,  in 
our  capitol,  as  by  an  old  statesman  of  another  stamp 
and  grade,  that  he  could  never  obtain  the  grant  of  six 
pence  for  a  poor  and  deserving  claimant,  but  that  he 
could  always  carry  a  felony  without  benefit  of  clergy. 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.     479 

Doubtless  it  is  a  deplorable  condition  of  a  people  if 
they  do  not  recognize  their  divinely  appointed  leaders, 
—  do  not  know  their  best  men  when  they  see  them, 
and,  having  the  republican  privilege,  do  fail  to  put  them 
at  the  head  of  affairs.  But  it  is  a  sadder  sight  yet, 
when  those  who  have  been  raised  to  power  under  the 
impression  that  they  were  the  best,  noblest,  purest,  fal 
sify  that  confidence,  betray  that  trust,  and  turn  the 
glory  and  the  hope  into  shame.  That  happens  when 
men  imagine  they  can  neglect  the  law  of  a  heavenly 
estate,  because  they  are  chosen  to  enact  laws  for  an 
earthly.  That  happens,  if  they  dream  that  they  can 
lay  off  their  principles  when  they  take  up  an  office,  or 
because  they  begin  to  be  legislators  cease  to  be  men. 
That  happens,  when  they  forget  that  from  the  moment 
they  enter  the  Halls  they  become  the  unpurchasable 
servants  of  the  least  and  lowest  of  the  people  of  the 
State,  and  can  take  no  other  furtherance  to  their  pri 
vate  fortunes  but  their  lawful  salary.  That  happens, 
when  they  come  to  the  Capitol  of  the  State  to  practise 
in  secret,  out  of  sight  of  their  families,  the  vices  that 
always  corrupt  commonwealths,  and  then  go  back  to 
their  constituents  unclean  and  guilty.  That  happens 
when  they  postpone  the  integrity  of  the  soul  to  political 
Shibboleths,  making  it  a  test  where  a  man  was  born 
rather  than  what  he  is,  or  else  subordinating  the 
mighty  virtues  of  humanity  to  the  cabals  arid  cau 
cuses  of  a  party.  Above  all,  do  not  be  enticed  into 
any  measure,  direct  or  indirect,  which  can  possibly  be 
construed  into  connivance  at  the  overshadowing  Ameri 
can  crime,  —  the  enslaving  or  re-enslaving  of  man. 

I  go  back  just  a  century  in  the  history  of  Massachu 
setts.     It  is  striking  to  see  how  the  sins  of  one  age  are 


480     CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

the  sins  of  another,  because  the  same  old  human  heart 
remains.  There  is  no  extinct  species  in  the  Flora  of 
iniquity.  A  hundred  years  ago  the  25th  of  last  May, 
before  the  election  day  was  changed,  and  when  the  first 
duty  of  the  Colonial  Legislature  was  to  elect  the  coun- 
cilmen,  the  minister  of  the  New  Brick  Church,  in  Bos 
ton,*  preached  the  anniversary  sermon.  Calling  on  the 
magistrates  before  him  to  "  arise  and  teach  the  people," 
to  "  fear  God  and  keep  his  commandments,"  that  it 
might  be  well  with  them  and  their  children  forever,  he 
continued  his  faithful  exhortation  thus  :  "  Animated  by 
this  divine  principle,  we  trust  you  will  proceed  this  day 
to  the  choice  of  His  Majesty's  Council,  and  give  your 
votes  for  men  who  have  an  awful  regard  for  the  laws  of 
God.  You  will  choose  men  of  wisdom  to  discern  the 
times,  —  more  zealous  to  advance  the  public  welfare 
than  their  private  advantage,  —  men  who  will  hazard 
their  credit  and  estates  rather  than  unite  in  any 
schemes  of  oppression  and  injustice,  —  men  who  will 
venture  to  displease  the  highest  authority  upon  earth, 
rather  than  give  a  vote  for  a  person  unqualified  for  the 
office  to  which  he  is  nominated,  —  men  that  will  not 
sell  their  country  for  a  bribe,  but  will  generously 
neglect  their  private  affairs  when  the  public  requires 
their  attention,  —  men  that  will  recommend  religion, 
not  only  by  wholesome  laws,  but  by  their  instructive 
example." 

This  immaculate,  invincible  uprightness  in  public 
station  is  no  dream  of  visionaries.  We  cannot  dismiss 
it  as  a  glory  of  the  Past,  impracticable  and  fabulous  at 
present.  That  is  infidelity  to  Providence,  to  history,  to 

*  Ebenezer  Pemberton. 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.    481 

the  ever-living  heart  of  Christ.  Besides,  instances  stand 
forth,  illustrious  and  imperial,  in  every  Christian  nation, 
—  the  honor  of  statesmanship,  the  defence  of  govern 
ments,  the  strength  of  their  age  against  all  partisan 
or  selfish  conspiracies.  Look,  for  a  single  example 
of  that  power,  into  the  last  generation  and  the  legisla 
tive  halls  of  England.  Trained  in  the  best  refinement 
and  learning  of  his  time,  coming  forth  from  the  midst 
of  London  fashions  and  palaces,  where  the  frowns  of 
the  world  are  most  formidable  and  its  flatteries  most 
seductive,  familiar  from  his  childhood  with  the  luxuries 
of  fortune  and  the  policies  of  a  false  expediency,  yet 
with  his  vision  quickened  by  Christian  faith,  and  his 
whole  nature  lightened  and  invigorated  by  the  lessons 
of  Olivet  and  Calvary,  Wilberforce  enters  Parliament. 
Many  a  hard  test  tries  .his  steadfastness.  Erect,  and 
yet  courteous,  he  never  swerves.  He  sees  straight 
through  every  moral  sophistry,  and  no  chicanery  can 
cheat  him  into  one  doubtful  compliance.  Hardest  of 
all,  Melville  is  impeached.  Friendship,  favor,  interest, 
social  alliance,  popularity,  all  importune  this  Christian 
statesman  to  take  up  the  cause  of  the  accused.  There 
was  the  eloquent  countenance,  and  the  trumpet  tongue, 
of  Pitt,  pleading  the  same  way.  But  there  was  one 
voice  on  the  other  side,  stiller,  grander,  the  voice  of  a 
righteous  sincerity,  and  from  that  "  he  was  accustomed 
to  take  no  appeal."  He  knew  Melville  was  wrong,  the 
accusation  just.  Not  an  instant's  hesitation.  He  stood 
up  to  speak  for  Right,  stripped  bare  of  all  enchant 
ments,  and  he  knew  that,  speaking  for  that,  he  spoke 
for  man,  for  his  country,  for  God  ;  because  he  who 
obeys  a  law  higher  than  that  of  states,  obeys  a  law  in 
which  alone  any  state  is  safe.  Proud  and  powerful 


482     CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

men  looked  on  with  disappointment,  not  to  say  with 
wrath.  Every  sentence  was  like  hacking  away  old  and 
precious  bonds  of  fellowship.  Melville  was  condemned, 
and  how  ?  Let  the  words  of  another's  history  answer : 
"  It  was  felt  that  in  a  question  of  simple  integrity,  where 
casuistry  had  to  be  eluded  and  plausibility  swept  aside, 
this  religious  tongue  was  the  last  authority  in  England. 
In  the  British  Senate,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  when 
a  point  of  morality  was  to  be  settled,  it  was  not  to  the 
man  of  duelling  honor,  it  was  not  to  the  philosophic 
moralist,  that  men  looked  for  a  decision ;  it  was  to  the 
Christian  senator  whose  code  was  the  Bible,"  kneeling 
every  morning  before  the  All-seeing  Eye,  "  going  up  to 
his  seat  from  his  closet,"  through  all  the  perplexities  of 
his  place  saying  ever  secretly  to  his  God,  "  Lead  me 
only  by  thy  Light." 

I  am  sure,  gentlemen,  you  respond  this  day  to  any 
earnest  call  for  public  fidelity,  and  welcome  any  exalted 
standard  of  public  duty.  You  are  at  the  outset  of  great 
perils  as  well  as  great  labors.  Whether  you  make  a 
conscientious  study  of  all  measures  and  schemes  and 
subjects  put  before  you  or  not,  be  certain  there  are 
those  who  are  already  making  a  politic  and  interested 
study  of  you,  —  your  prejudices,  tastes,  habits,  associa 
tions,  your  weaker  and  stronger  side.  You  are  in 
danger  of  losing  your  single-mindedness,  your  inde 
pendence,  your  manhood.  You  are  charged  to-day  with 
the  responsibility,  first  of  keeping  a  Christian  conscience, 
and  then  of  Christian  legislation  for  Massachusetts. 
Immense  trusts  both,  —  the  last  vain  without  the  first. 
So  you  need  this  hour  of  prayer,  and  are  thankful  for 
it.  If  any  of  you,  on  the  other  hand,  are  carrying  up 
to  the  Capitol  now  such  poverty  of  principle,  or  such 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.      483 

salable  convictions,  that  you  will  be  seduced  into  mak 
ing  merchandise  of  your  soul  to  the  first  or  richest 
buyer  in  the  passage-way,  then,  in  the  name  of  the 
State,  —  in  the  name  of  all  public  credit  and  faith,  — in 
the  name  of  common  decency,  —  in  the  name  of  the 
truth  of  God,  I  adjure  you  to  resign  and  go  home  to 
night.  It  will  be  the  best  service  you  ever  rendered 
to  the  Commonwealth,  and  more  to  the  advantage  of 
the  statute-book  than  all  the  votes  and  speeches  of  a 
session. 

Gentlemen,  these  are  solemn  hours  for  our  country, 
for  this  Commonwealth,  for  the  whole  Republic.  They 
are  solemn  hours  for  you,  who  hold  for  a  little  while 
the  awful  trust  of  the  character  of  one  member  in  the 
great  confederation.  It  is  no  vision  of  alarmists  that 
sees  tendencies  busily  at  work  which  will  sweep  us  first 
to  political  prodigality,  and  then  to  oblivion  of  freedom 
and  justice  both,  and  then  to  revolution,  unless  some 
new-born  conviction  of  the  eternal  rectitude  comes  to 
check  the  madness  of  the  hour,  and  restore  religion  to 
her  control.  Be  the  immortal  honor  of  building  the 
order  which  the  early  patriots  founded,  yours.  Yours 
also  are  the  fathers,  and  yours  the  adoption,  the  glory, 
the  covenants,  the  giving  of  the  law,  the  service  of  God, 
and  the  promises  ;  and  to  you  Christ  has  come.  The 
just  nation,  the  just  state,  like  the  just  soul,  shall  live 
by  its  faith.  No  height  of  privilege,  no  swelling  census, 
no  width  of  territory,  no  perfection  of  political  construc 
tion,  no  wealth  or  splendor  of  cities  or  of  citizens  can 
save  the  faithless  people  from  perishing. 

Lovers  of  the  nation,  then,  still  build  its  synagogues ! 
Ye  that  would  be  patriots,  be  believers.  Have  men  of 
veracity  for  your  officers,  men  of  intrepid  uprightness 


484     CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION. 

for  your  law-makers,  men  that  fear  only  God  and  keep 
his  commandments  for  your  citizens.  For  he  that  rev 
erences  our  holy  religion  in  the  sanctuary,  and  replen 
ishes  it  in  the  closet,  and  acts  it  in  his  life,  is  a  more 
effectual  priest  in  the  temple  of  our  liberties,  than  the 
cunning  statesman  that  diplomatizes  in  a  cabinet,  or  the 
orator  that  talks  administrations  and  parties  into  power 
or  out  of  it  with  a  crafty  tongue.  For  it  is  as  true  now, 
in  our  ancient,  beloved,  Christian  Commonwealth,  as  in 
the  days  of  the  eloquent  prophet-king,  that  "  over  the 
faithful  of  the  land  the  eyes  of  Mercy  keep  watch." 

Let  us  conclude,  then,  with  the  most  comprehensive 
affirmation  of  our  subject.  Above  and  beneath  all  civil 
constitutions,  —  the  foundation  of  their  stability,  the 
dome  of  their  protection,  their  corner-stone,  their  wall 
of  defence,  their  genial  and  sheltering  sky,  is  the  relig 
ion  and  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Virtue  is 
loyalty.  Goodness  is  patriotism.  The  best  citizenship 
is  the  best  Christianship.  The  best  legislator  is  the 
truest  and  wisest  man.  Character  is  the  strength  of 
the  State.  They  are  the  friends,  the  ornaments,  the 
defenders  of  the  country  and  its  constitution,  who  will 
not  swerve  from  its  three  original,  immortal  ideas, — 
Faith,  Freedom,  Fraternity.  These,  rightly  interpreted, 
comprehend  the  wealth  of  our  heritage,  the  boundless 
promise  of  our  Future.  We  spoil  that  heritage,  we  for 
feit  that  Future,  only  as  we  disobey  God,  injure  man, 
and  worship  ourselves. 

To  the  retiring  Chief  Magistrate  I  offer  the  respectful 
salutations  of  the  place  and  the  hour,  congratulating 
him  on  the  honors  of  his  office,  on  the  successes  of  its 
administration,  on  the  release  from  its  cares,  on  every 
independent  and  unselfish  act  in  its  discharge,  on  every 

inWflVfl    m»  niifwnrrl    -tacfimrmv  r\f 


CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP  AND  HONEST  LEGISLATION.     485 

For  the  honorable  Senate,  Council,  and  House  of 
Representatives,  I  invoke  here  the  spirit  and  blessing 
of  the  God  of  our  fathers,  the  God  of  our  beloved 
Commonwealth,  the  God  of  Honor,  Justice,  Truth, 
and  Peace.  May  all  their  members  be  honest  legis 
lators,  Christian  citizens,  lovers  of  the  nation,  servants 
of  Christ  and  his  Church ! 


SERMON    XXIV. 

LIFE   THE  TEST   OF  LEARNING* 

WHO  IS  A  WISE  MAN  AND  ENDUED  WITH  KNOWLEDGE  AMONG 
YOU  ?  LET  HIM  SHOW  OUT  OF  A  GOOD  CONVERSATION  HIS 
WORKS  WITH  MEEKNESS  OF  WISDOM.  —  James  ill.  13. 

IF  we  remember  that  the  term  here  rendered  "  con 
versation  "  bears  a  larger  signification  than  we  com 
monly  attach  to  that  English  word,  —  meaning  the 
whole  action  of  life,  the  development  of  character, 
the  way  a  man  works,  turns,  or  behaves  himself  in 
the  world,  —  avaarpo^,  —  and  if  we  remember  that  on 
that  term  falls  the  main  emphasis  of  the  sentence,  we 
shall  get  from  the  whole  passage  a  general  declaration 
of  remarkable  point,  and  quite  appropriate  to  the  spe 
cial  bearing  of  this  service. 

The  scope  of  the  writer's  thought,  paraphrasing  the 
statement  a  little,  will  be  something  like  this  :  —  You 
speak  of  knowledge.  You  value  intellectual  attain 
ments.  You  honor  wise  or  learned  men.  But  why  do 
you  value  those  attainments  ?  Who  are  your  wise 
men  ?  Let  Christian  truth  tell  you.  The  use  of 

*  Delivered  before  the  Graduating  Class  of  Harvard  College,  June  15, 
1856. 


LIFE   THE  TEST  OF   LEARNING.  487 

knowledge  is  to  guide  and  elevate  the  life.  Wise 
men,  or  well-educated  men,  are  those  that  make 
what  they  know  illuminate  and  enrich  what  they  do. 
The  proper  end  and  aim  of  study  is  a  strong,  simple, 
consistent  character.  The  best  attainments  always  pro 
duce  a  certain  humility,  or  reverence,  —  a  sense  of  de 
pendence  on  the  great  Source  of  Light,  God,  —  what  is 
called  "  the  meekness  of  wisdom."  This  feeling  is  an 
inspiration  to  religious  actions.  The  more  learning  a 
true  man  gets,  the  more  widely,  the  more  accurately, 
the  more  profoundly,  he  will  see  and  think  ;  and  so,  by 
consequence,  the  more  he  will  see  what  earnest  labors 
there  are  to  be  done  ;  the  more  he  will  think  of  the 
claims  of  God  and  man  upon  him  to  turn  all  his  re 
sources  and  energies  into  the  channel  of  a  beneficent 
activity.  His  attainments  will  be  worth  having,  just  in 
proportion  as  they  are  assimilated  with  the  vital  forces 
of  his  manhood  ;  and,  by  entering  into  the  currents  of 
spiritual  purpose  and  affection,  they  will  inspire  and 
nourish  his  soul.  If  you  would  find  out  who  among 
you  is  endued  with  knowledge,  and  who  is  not,  you  can 
apply  this  proof.  Inquire  who  puts  his  knowledge  into 
a  "  good  conversation,"  —  a  noble  or  beautiful  manner 
of  living,  —  Ka\rj  avaarpo^ij.  In  a  word,  Character  is 
the  final  cause  of  study.  Life  is  the  test  of  learning. 

I  cannot  help  asking  you  to  notice,  in  passing,  how 
exactly  this  idea  fits  in  with  the  peculiar  characteristic 
of  James,  the  Apostle  that  wrote  this  letter  to  the 
churches.  There  is  always  a  moral  interest  in  a  coinci 
dence  between  a  man  and  his  speech.  It  makes  the 
man  more  valid,  and  the  speech  more  credible,  besides 
confirming  and  comforting  our  faith  in  human  sincerity 
generally.  The  New  Testament  is  full  of  these  marks 


488  LIFE   THE  TEST   OF   LEARNING. 

of  genuineness.  And  they  are  nowhere  seen  in  a  more 
striking  and  unconscious  appearance  than  in  James. 
Pre-eminently,  he  was  the  Apostle  of  practical  service. 
The  first  question  about  everything  with  him  was,  What 
will  it  render  of  living,  human  goodness  ?  Or,  in  our 
common  phrase,  How  will  it  work  ?  Let  it  be  opinion, 
or  faith,  or  preaching,  or  charity.  What  are  its  fruits  ? 
What  docs  it  come  to  ?  So,  here,  of  knowledge.  Con 
duct  is  the  criterion  of  knowledge.  Unless  it  yields  a 
goodly  harvest  here,  much  study  is  only  a  weariness  to 
the  flesh,  and  a  vanity  of  the  mind. 

A  moment  has  come  when  you,  my  friends,  whom  it 
is  my  privilege  to  address  especially  to-day,  can  hardly 
help  putting  to  yourselves  the  question,  whether  your 
education,  thus  far,  is  worth  what  you  have  given  for 
it.  The  providence  of  God,  who  interests  himself  so 
paternally  and  solemnly  in  every  new  step  we  take,  and 
who  puts  a  voice  of  his  own  into  every  event,  though  it 
seems  the  most  regular,  or  natural,  or  incidental,  is 
urging  that  question  home  upon  you.  The  interrup 
tion  of  a  routine  that  has  lasted  several  years  casts  us 
back  upon  individual  choice  and  absolute  principle.  It 
is  divinely  intended  to.  And  so  the  closing  up  of  one 
long  and  important  term  of  intellectual  training,  so 
costly  of  time  and  means,  and  faculty  and  strength, 
presses  in  the  Christian  inquiry,  whether  what  has  been 
gained  is  equal  to  such  pains  expended. 

An  unprofitable  and  possibly  a  dismal  question,  if  the 
answer  were  not  still  in  your  own  power !  But  it  is. 
The  great  test  of  life  is  yet  to  be  applied.  And  the  time 
is  coming.  Whether  what  you  have  gathered  here  is  to 
lie  a  crude  and  unproductive  mass,  in  sluggish  brains  ; 
or  whether  it  is  to  be  perverted  to  the  baleful  purposes 


LIFE   THE  TEST   OF  LEARNING.  489 

of  a  selfish  and  headstrong  will,  —  all  the  elaborate  ap 
paratus  of  education  turned  into  an  engine  of  more 
effectual  mischief ;  or  whether  it  shall  be  given  to  the 
noblest  objects  of  human  hope,  and  thus  consecrated  to 
Christ ;  —  this  is  the  threefold  choice  that  awaits  your 
determination,  not  to  be  evaded  by  any  ingenuity,  not 
to  be  forfeited  by  any  neglect.  It  is  certainly  a  fit 
time,  then,  to  meditate  the  true  and  righteous  uses  of  a 
Christian  scholarship.  Three  easy  and  tempting  mis 
takes  seem  to  me  to  lie  directly  before  you,  —  I  might 
say  before  us  all,  —  exposing  all  our  past  industry  to 
failure. 

I.  The  first  danger  is  indifference.  False  objects  in 
life  are  positive  destroyers:  but  the  absence  of  any 
clear  object  is  a  waster  almost  equally  consumptive,  and 
with  one  order  of  minds  even  more  seductive.  It  would 
seem  as  if  the  natural  effect  of  a  comprehensive  system 
of  discipline  must  be  to  rouse  the  will  and  direct  its 
aim.  Why  translate  the  tongues  of  so  many  tribes  of 
men,  if  not  to  collect  from  them  some  completer  inter 
pretation  of  the  riddle  of  our  destiny  ?  Why  explore 
the  mysterious  geography  of  the  mind  itself,  and  inter 
rogate  the  wondrous  faculty  by  which  all  knowledge 
comes,  if  not  to  gain  new  data  towards  the  solution  of 
the  oldest  and  deepest  problem,  —  Why  was  I  born  ? 
Why  do  I  breathe  ?  Whither  do  I  tend  ?  How  is  it 
possible  to  trace  the  moving  processions  of  the  ages, 
through  paths  seeming  so  trivial  while  they  were  trod, 
but  so  solemn  in  the  echoes  of  their  desertion,  and  not 
be  sent  back  to  watch  with  a  wiser  eye  which  way  our 
own  steps  lead  ?  The  whole  contemplation  of  history 
is  an  incitement  to  live  purposely  and  earnestly.  It  is 
the  very  dignity  of  science,  that  it  reads  off  to  us  not 


490  LIFE   THE   TEST   OF   LEARNING. 

only  the  thoughts  but  the  plan  of  God,  —  a  plan  whose 
unity  and  method  demand  some  reflection  and  some 
copy,  even  in  natures  so  fantastic  and  wayward  as  ours. 
Every  lesson  from  creation  proposes  a  task  to  be  done. 
Every  disclosure  of  the  Creator  presents  an  end  to  be 
achieved. 

Yet  I  need  hardly  remind  you  how  often  we  miss 
this  practical  and  personal  issue  of  the  most  intelli 
gent  study,  —  ever  learning,  but  never  coming  to  the 
knowledge  of  that  simple  truth  !  The  lives  of  scholars, 
so  peculiarly  solicited  and  stimulated  to  the  straitest 
determination,  are  given  over,  as  often  perhaps  as  oth 
ers,  sometimes  it  appears  oftener  than  any  others, — 
and  certainly  with  a  more  palpable  and  melancholy 
abortiveness,  —  to  aimless,  nerveless,  desultory  chance. 
How  the  treasures  rust  in  our  hands !  The  smooth 
stones  out  of  the  brook  drop  unused  from  our  grasp. 
The  sling  hangs  loose  at  our  side.  Giant  Error  walks 
defiant  and  unchallenged  at  the  head  of  his  Philistine 
troops.  The  years  run  on,  and  no  resolute  helm  guides 
the  rocking  keel  toward  a  land  of  distinct  and  sacred 
promise.  We  are  idly  busy  with  living,  careless  of  life. 
Two  causes  encourage  this  apathy. 

One  is,  that  the  structure  and  habits  of  our  industrial 
commonwealth  expose  the  recent  graduate  from  college 
to  a  period  of  uncertainty  in  his  employment.  It  can 
not  be  denied,  I  think,  that  at  present  there  is  some 
want  of  happy  adjustment  between  the  academic  career 
and  the  public  stations  it  precedes.  The  places  of  the 
higher  and  more  intellectual  labor  are  not  organized  in 
proportion  to  the  mechanical  and  trafficking  vocations. 
The  developments  of  modern  civilization  have  much 
widened  the  range  of  selection,  and  almost  bewilder  the 


LIFE   THE   TEST   OP  LEARNING.  491 

judgment.  Two  or  three  clean-cut  professions,  techni 
cally  learned,  do  not,  as  formerly,  distribute  and  absorb 
the  whole  educated  force.  The  same  professions,  mean- 
tune,  for  better  or  for  worse,  cease  to  be  technically,  if 
not  in  any  other  sense,  learned,  and  are  occupied  by 
candidates  who  have  rushed  up  to  their  gates  by  a 
shorter  road.  The  fact,  however  it  comes  about,  seems 
to  stand,  that  an  increasing  number  of  college-bred  men 
wait,  with  an  awkward  pause,  after  their  graduation, 
undecided  yet  of  what  their  "  commencement "  shall  be 
the  beginning.  Unless  some  positive  predilection  or 
early  bias  has  happened  to  settle  their  choice  for  them, 
an  interval  of  doubt  disturbs  and  enfeebles  the  steady 
drift  and  tenacity  of  their  resolves.  It  is  a  crisis  of 
trial  and  peril.  Some  men  are  hurried  by  it  into  a 
choice  that  is  foolish  and  profanes  the  after-existence. 
Others  are  diluted  by  it  into  a  spongy  softness,  and  fall 
off  into  habits  of  literary  generality,  or  sentimental 
imbecility.  What  is  wanted  is  a  Christian  efficiency  of 
purpose,  —  a  Christian  decision  not  to  let  haste  spoil 
the  material,  —  a  Christian  decision  not  to  be  content 
with  vacillation.  Delay  too  long,  and  there  creeps 
upon  the  soul  a  fatally  satisfied  unconcern.  The  de 
scent  is  easier,  because  the  goads  and  exactions  of  a 
systematic  discipline  have  just  been  taken  off;  the  indo 
lent  free-will  often  finds  the  charming  liberty  to  do  what 
it  pleases  a  wretched  liberty  to  do  nothing.  Be  guarded 
against  this  dull  catastrophe.  Let  not  the  bright  begin 
ning  slouch  into  a  stupid  sequel.  What  thy  hand  or 
thy  brain  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy  might.  For  he 
only  is  the  wise  man,  and  endued  with  knowledge 
among  you,  who  keeps  his  life  lively,  and  shows  fruits 
of  his  study  in  a  goodly  conversation. 


492  LIFE  THE  TEST   OF  LEARNING. 

Another  cause  of  indifference  to  any  lofty  and  relig 
ious  uses  of  education  is  a  subservience  to  the  routine 
of  professional  tasks.  When  the  profession  has  been 
chosen  and  entered,  it  may  still  put  on  a  yoke.  Recur 
ring  drudgeries  deaden  enthusiasm.  The  first  ardor 
fades  off.  Monotony  sings  its  drowsy  tune.  Common 
place  efforts  will  do  for  commonplace  business ;  why 
stretch  the  powers  beyond  their  wonted  mood  ?  Medi 
ocrity  is  safe  and  practicable  ;  why  spur  the  aspirations 
by  a  swifter  measure  ?  Because,  answers  Christianity, 
they  are  the  glory  of  your  being.  Because  unbounded 
powers  are  insulted  by  arbitrary  limits.  Because  the 
conquest  of  the  possible  into  the  actual  is  the  keenest 
fascination  of  true  courage.  Because  God  never  made 
us,  and  his  institutions  never  nurtured  us,  to  be  slug 
gish  grinders  in  the  mill  of  repetition,  but  fellow- wrest 
lers  with  the  heroes  and  apostles,  —  striving  for  the 
great  mastery,  pressing  toward  the  mark.  And  there 
is  but  one  victory,  but  one  mark.  However  sloth  may 
sleep,  or  cowardice  despair,  or  infidelity  deny,  there  is 
nothing  less  than  a  practical  and  progressive  ripening  of 
the  whole  man  for  the  glory  of  God  that  can  fill  out 
the  passion  of  the  really  "  wise  man  endued  with  knowl 
edge  among  you."  The  first  sentence  of  Milton's  tract 
on  the  Reforming  of  Education  is  an  exposition  of  my 
text :  "  I  am  long  since  persuaded  that,  to  do  or  say 
aught  worth  memory  or  imitation,  no  purpose  should 
sooner  move  us  than  simply  the  love  of  God  and  of 

mankind The  end  of  learning  is  to  repair  the 

ruins  of  our  first  parents  by  learning  to  know  God 
aright,  and  out  of  that  knowledge  to  be  like  him,  —  as 
we  may  the  nearest  be  by  possessing  our  souls  of  true 
virtue,  which,  being  united  to  the  heavenly  grace  of 


LIFE   THE   TEST   OP   LEARNING.  493 

faith,  makes  up  the  highest  perfection."  And  how  well 
he  insists  on  this  definite  and  living  purpose  of  the 
scholar,  when  he  speaks  of  "  that  methodical  course 
wherein  our  gentle  and  noble  youth  must  proceed,  by 
the  steady  pace  of  learning  onward,  till  they  have  con 
firmed  and  .solidly  united  the  whole  body  of  their  per 
fected  knowledge,  like  the  last  embattling  of  a  Roman 
legion !  " 

II.  But  beyond  indifference  whether  learning  has  any 
grand  object,  —  and  sometimes,  indeed,  this  side  of  it, 
—  lies  the  hindrance  of  a  poor  self-seeking.  Undoubt 
edly  it  is  one  of  the  most  appalling  proofs  of  the  vigor 
of  the  selfish  passions,  that  they  survive  as  they  do 
through  all  the  liberalizing  influence  of  a  catholic  cul 
ture,  and  resist  the  generous  impressions  of  science, 
and  even  triumph  over  the  charities  of  good-fellowship, 
in  the  base  hunger  for  luxury  or  comfort.  The  Apostle 
does  not  say  it  is  in  a  lucrative  conversation,  or  a 
famous  conversation,  or  a  comfortable  conversation, 
that  the  works  of  the  real  wisdom  are  shown  forth, 
but  in  a  "  good  conversation."  Nor  is  it  in  the  pride, 
the  distinction,  the  notoriety,  or  the  emoluments  of  wis 
dom, —  the  office,  the  salary,  the  applause,  the  furni 
ture,  —  but  in  "  the  meekness  of  wisdom.  It  is  Wis 
dom  for  her  own  pure  and  precious  sake,  —  or  rather 
for  His  sake  who  possessed  her  of  old,  in  the  beginning, 
when  he  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth,  —  that  he 
loves  and  pursues.  If  scholarship  holds  itself  affronted 
by  being  degraded  into  the  low  wrangle  of  appetites, 
religion  has  a  sterner  rebuke,  and  calls  it  sacrilege. 
The  question,  when  you  are  laying  your  plans  for  the 
future,  is  not,  Which  will  yield  me  the  best  living? 
but,  Which  will  yield  me  the  best  life  ?  It  cannot  be 


494  LIFE   THE  TEST   OF   LEARNING. 

that  you  have  been  out  in  the  fields  of  learning  seeking 
jewels,  to  bring  them  in  and  lay  them  down  as  pur 
chase-money  for  equipage  or  compliments.  The  legit- 
mate  children  of  Mammon,  schooled,  not  as  you  have 
been,  in  the  ample  and  serene  atmosphere  of  unselfish 
thought,  but  in  the  closer  chambers  of  mercenary  cal 
culation,  —  trained,  not,  as  you  have  been,  in  the  royal 
company  of  great  persons  from  antiquity  downward, 
but  in  the  scramble  and  devices  of  gain,  —  will  beat 
you  in  that  rivalry ;  and  they  ought  to.  How  your 
educated  strength  shall  be  devoted,  should  be  settled  by 
another  reference  than  the  stock-list  or  the  tax-bill.  All 
honest  callings  are  honorable.  If  you  carry  your  ac 
quirements  into  commerce,  you  may  enter  into  a  wor 
thy  and  magnanimous  competition.  There  is  scope 
there  for  your  largest  faculty,  and  there  is  need  there 
of  the  broadest  philosophy.  But  you  cannot  decently 
go  to  turn  your  talents  into  merchandise,  to  forget  the 
communion  with  high  examples,  to  square  your  notions 
of  civil  affairs  by  the  self-interest  of  the  market,  to  sell 
the  nobility  of  art  and  letters  for  some  rich  bargain,  to 
barter  conscience  for  tariff  or  dividends,  —  to  let  your 
independent  duty  as  citizens  and  as  patriots  be  appoint 
ed  for  you  by  the  narrow  gossip  of  the  exchange  or  the 
contracts  of  brokers'  boards.  Bear  into  whatever  mer 
cantile  engagements  or  profitable  alliances  you  encoun 
ter  a  spirit  that  is  genial  with  the  sympathies  of  all 
the  peoples  you  have  conversed  with,  —  self-denying 
with  old  sacrifices,  fragrant  with  the  mountain  air  of 
meditation,  sacred  with  the  veneration  of  holy  traditions. 
Breathe  the  spirit  of  your  studies  into  the  haunts  of 
trade.  Touch  the  rough  customs  of  shops  with  the 
grace  of  a  genuine  refinement.  And  do  all  that  mod- 


LIFE   THE   TEST   OF  LEARNING.  495 

esty  will  allow  to  raise  the  strifes  of  property  into  a 
statelier  degree,  by  asserting  everywhere  the  supremacy 
of  thinking  man  ovor  his  possessions,  and  of  simple 
justice  over  all  the  policies  and  expediencies  of  the 
hour.  Maintain  everywhere  the  absolute  dignity  of 
Truth  who  has  chosen  you  once  as  her  disciples  and 
heralds,  —  and  never  forget,  however  affluence  bids  for 
your  souls,  that  you  were  here  set  apart  and  dedicated 
as  priests  in  the  unsordid  Temple  of  Learning. 

Consider,  too,  that  there  is  a  greediness  of  praise  just 
as  radically  selfish,  if  not  quite  so  carnal,  as  the  lust  for 
money.  And  precisely  because  it  wears  a  more  intel 
lectual  look  it  is  a  sin  that  offers  a  more  acceptable  bait 
to  cultivated  men.  But  there  is  nothing  in  it  of  "  the 
meekness  of  wisdom."  The  selfishness  of  vanity  is  at 
its  root,  and  the  selfishness  of  ostentation  is  in  its 
branches,  —  and  green  jealousies  are  canker-worms  on 
all  its  leaves.  He  is  not  half-educated,  not  the  wise 
man,  nor  endued  with  knowledge  among  you,  who 
suborns  the  common  largesses  of  the  past  into  a  step 
ping-stone  to  personal  renown,  and  prizes  the  light  that 
is  sent  to  warm  the  whole  race  into  a  brotherhood,  only 
for  the  distinctions  it  reveals  between  himself  and  his 
kind.  Not  that  is  the  genuine  scholar's  temper,  nor  the 
goodly  conversation. 

III.  Thirdly,  it  is  no  business  of  the  liberal  and 
Christian  scholar  to  become  the  hired  servant  of  party 
prejudice  or  sectarian  interests.  Science  is  given  and 
got  for  no  such  contemptible  uses.  Students  are  con 
gregated  in  a  still  and  separate  spot,  on  neutral  ground, 
remote  as  may  be  from  all  political  and  ecclesiastical 
chicanery,  on  purpose  that  they  may  grow  and  expand, 
aloof  from  the  warping  forces  of  controversy.  But,  in  a 

42 


496  LIFE  THE  TEST   OF  LEARNING. 

social  state  like  ours,  it  would  take  more  than  a  Chinese 
wall,  or  the  rules  of  monastic  seclusion,  to  shut  out  even 
from  academic  groves  the  Intruding  conflicts  of  the  fo 
rum  and  the  convention.  Before  you  have  passed  out 
of  the  hearing  of  the  College'  bell,  the  recruiting  officers 
of  state  and  church  will  besiege  you  for  your  pledge. 
Consider  carefully,  I  pray  you,  before  you  give  it  to  any 
of  them,  how  much  you  give  with  it,  —  whether  your 
manhood,  whether  your  individuality,  whether  your  lib 
erty  of  speech,  whether  the  sanctity  of  a  fearless  con 
viction.  Here  again  scholarship  and  Christianity  both 
unite  to  put  you  on  your  guard.  There  are  little 
coteries  enough,  in  art,  in  letters,  in  social  opinion, 
in  public  policy,  in  theologic  speculation,  that  will  be 
delighted  to  enroll  a  new  name  on  their  lists.  Their 

D 

captains  will  electioneer  for  you  while  you  are  free,  — 
flatter  you  when  you  consent,  —  patronize  and  cajole 
you  when  you  are  caught,  —  use  and  pay  you  while 
you  succumb,  —  abuse  and  torment  you  when  you 
rebel.  Can  you  afford  that  servitude  ?  Can  learning 
afford  it  in  your  persons  ?  And  who,  in  all  these 
truckling  and  hard-drilled  times,  shall  be  honest  and 
free,  if  not  they  whose  minds  have  been  balanced  and 
poised  by  contemplating  the  reasons  of  things  ? 

It  is  not  against  the  more  open  and  offensive  aggres 
sions  of  such  combined  interests  that  these  warnings  are 
directed,  so  much  as  against  devices  that  are  more  spe 
cious  and  plausible.  We  have  committed  ourselves,  in 
our  social  experiment,  to  the  government  of  public 
opinion,  even  more  than  of  public  law.  Unless  the 
original  fountains  of  it  are  kept  healthy  and  pure,  we 
are  in  the  most  complicated  and  disastrous  of  anarchies. 
Already,  thoughtful  men  cannot  look  far  about  them 


LIFE  THE   TEST   OF  LEARNING.  497 

without  seeing  what  beginnings  of  ruinous  and  despotic 
power,  of  misjudgment,  of  defamation,  of  vituperation, 
are  craftily  growing  up  in  these  bigotries  of  our  democ 
racy.  Truth  is  scarcely  seen  for  what  it  is,  but  only  for 
the  image  and  superscription  it  bears,  nor  prized  for  its 
beauty,  but  for  its  currency.  The  few  that  venture  on 
a  practical  assertion  of  the  boasted  liberality,  have  to 
be  catechized,  and  menaced,  and  ostracized,  so  far  as 
the  puny  persecutions  of  wordy  violence  can  ostracize. 
Oppose  to  these  degrading  dictations  all  the  massive 
resistance  of  your  knowledge,  the  muscle  of  your  man 
hood,  and  the  sincerity  of  your  faith. 

Faith,  I  say.  For  it  is  not  the  independence  of  self- 
will,  not  the  vain  ambition  of  peculiarity,  not  the  inso 
lent  contempt  of  the  past,  or  of  other  men,  or  of  right 
eous  authority,  that  I  exhort  you  to.  It  is  the  honest 
loyalty  to  the  one  only  Authority,  instead  of  mortal 
counterfeits.  It  is  the  appeal  from  custom  to  Christ, — 
from  party  and  sect  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  —  from  mortal 
majorities  to  God.  There  is  no  right  religious  rever 
ence  which  does  not  fear  the  one  only  Master  more  than 
unpopularity  or  reproach.  What  we  want  is  that  hu 
mility,  growing  ever  deeper  with  all  growing  heights  of 
attainment,  —  that  penitential  confession  of  sins,  that 
meekness  of  wisdom,  which  bends  with  unutterable  awe 
before  the  secret  voice  of  the  Most  High,  before  the 
open  command  of  the  Bible,  and  which,  being  turned 
"  into  a  native  and  heroic  valor,"  makes  men  "  hate 
the  cowardice  of  doing  wrong." 

Let  us  ponder,  then,  the  great  claims  that  are  laid  on 
our  educated  men.  The  country  has  claims,  —  never 
more  than  now.  We  need  more  of  that  sort  of  educa- 


498  LIFE  THE  TEST  OF  LEARNING. 

tion  which  stirs  and  fosters,  from  beginning  to  end,  a 
loyal  zeal  for  the  central  and  dominant  ideas  that  lie 
at  the  foundation  of  the  Republic.  The  scholar  is  not 
well  trained  that  has  not  been  formed  day  by  day  into 
a  Christian  patriot.  Our  universities  ought  all  to  be 
nurseries,  not  of  national  exclusiveness,  or  national 
vanity,  but  of  a  just  national  honor,  virtue,  and  devo 
tion.  They  should  rear  and  send  forth  prophets  for  the 
American  Israel,  —  prophets  brave  and  blameless,  and 
speaking  ever  with  a  "Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  —  proph 
ets  that  no  sophistry  can  bewilder,  no  tyrant  silence,  no 
bludgeon  terrify,  no  flattery  blind.  Out  of  libraries, 
and  out  of  laboratories,  and  out  of  the  forearming  con 
tests  of  debate,  let  them  send  forth,  for  each  impending 
struggle  of  Right  with  Wrong,  thinkers  and  speakers 
"  fraught  with  a  universal  insight,  ingenuous  and 
matchless  men."  For,  as  said  that  stanch  old  English 
republican  of  two  centuries  ago,  in  language  suiting  us 
to-day,  There  is  a  study  of  politics  worthy  of  Christian 
scholars,  "  that  they  may  not,  in  a  dangerous  fit  of  the 
commonwealth,  be  such  poor,  shaken,  uncertain  reeds, 
of  such  a  tottering  conscience,  as  many  of  our  great 
counsellors  have  lately  shown  themselves,  but  steadfast 
pillars  of  the  state." 

Universal  humanity  has  claims.  That  "  good  con 
versation  "  of  the  Christian  scholar  condescends  to 
converse  with  the  lowest  offshoot  of  the  human  stock. 
That  "  meekness  of  wisdom  "  stoops  gladly  to  help  the 
weakest  wayfarer ;  to  hear  the  story  of  wrong  or  weak 
ness  from  the  faintest  or  most  unlettered  lips ;  to  sym 
pathize  with  the  wants  of  the  vagrant,  or  the  sorrows  of 
the  slave ;  to  bring  all  the  sublime  resources  of  culture, 
the  magic  of  invention,  and  the  facilities  of  genius,  to 


LIFE  THE   TEST   OF  LEARNING.  499 

ease  the  burdens  of  penury,  to  open  the  path  to  the 
helpless,  to  pay  respect  and  wages  to  unpaid  toil,  to 
inspire  brute  force  with  intelligence,  to  marshal  idle 
men  and  women  and  children  into  ranks  of  self-sustain 
ing  labor.  This  is  a  worthy  end  for  the  best  scholar 
ship  of  the  age,  — 

"  How  best  to  help  the  slender  store, 
How  mend  the  dwellings  of  the  poor,  — 
How  gain  in  life,  as  life  advances, 
Valor  and  charity  more  and  more." 

Above  all,  Christ  has  claims.  And  his  claims  are 
supreme.  They  transcend,  they  underlie,  they  encom 
pass,  all  beside.  The  Lord  of  souls  is  Lord  of  the 
sciences  as  well.  Common  gratitude  challenges  obe 
dience  and  love  for  Him,  in  whose  name  every  hope  of 
civilization  moves  to  its  fulfilment,  and  every  affection 
of  mankind  realizes  itself  in  peace.  It  must  be  a  per 
sonal  obedience,  —  a  personal  love.  No  general  and 
cold  confession,  no  vague  and  rhetorical  loyalty,  no 
heartless  and  high-sounding  praises,  can  satisfy  that 
Gospel  of  regeneration  on  which  salvation  depends. 
Penitence,  trust,  consecration,  prayer,  righteousness, — 
these  will ;  for  God  is  Love,  and  his  forgiveness  waits. 
Every  thought  and  imagination  must  be  brought  into 
captivity  to  the  holy  obedience  of  the  Son  of  God.  All 
knowledge  that  is  not  rooted  and  centred  there  vanishes 
away.  "  Who  is  a  wise  man.  and  endued  with  knowl 
edge  among  you  ?  "  He  is  the  believing  student,  the 
studious  disciple. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Graduating  Class,  our  doctrine 
culminates  here. 

Every  considerable  change  in  the  form  of  our  life  is 

42* 


500  LIFE   THE  TEST   OF   LEARNING. 

meant  to  suggest  to  us  something  original  as  to  its 
spirit.  The  dissolving  of  one  set  of  relations  moves  the 
question  by  what  law  new  sets  shall  be  organized. 
When  farewells  and  distance  threaten  manly  friend 
ships,  what  is  more  unavoidable  than  to  think  what  arm 
shall  keep  the  friend  that  is  parted  from,  and  whether 
there  is  not  one  Friendship  in  whose  Eternal  and  Al 
mighty  clasp  every  human  affection  finds  its  safety  ? 
The  separation  of  classmates  opens  spaces  about  each 
one's  personality  which  let  in  light  from  above  on  all 
your  plans  and  habits.  A  change  of  residence  puts  us 
to  asking  why  we  live  at  all ;  how  long  we  shall  need 
any  earthly  dwelling ;  whether  we  deserve  any.  How 
shall  your  tuition  justify  these  years,  and  your  future 
be  adequate  to  the  past  ? 

That  question,  like  every  other  that  an  earnest  expe 
rience  asks,  God's  Book  of  Life  answers. 

Life  is  the  test  of  Learning.  Character  is  the  crite 
rion  of  knowledge.  Not  what  a  man  has,  but  what  he 
is,  is  the  question,  after  all.  The  quality  of  soul  is 
more  than  the  quantity  of  information.  Personal,  spir 
itual  substance  is  the  final  resultant.  Have  that,  and 
your  intellectual  furnishings  and  attainments  will  turn, 
with  no  violent  contortion,  but  with  a  natural  tendency 
and  harmony,  —  a  working  together,  conversation,  ava- 
(TTpo^ri,  —  to  the  loftiest  uses.  Add  faith  to  knowledge, 
and  your  education  will  be  worth  what  it  has  cost. 
Your  lives  will  honor  and  justify  your  preparation. 
Say,  every  morning,  with  the  simple  confidence  of  the 
holy  child  in  the  Temple,  "  Lord,  here  am  I !  "  and  he 
will  send  you  to  noble  and  effectual  victories.  Your 
wisdom  will  tell  to  issues  that  are  divine,  and  that  wis 
dom  the  Eternal  Providence  will  watch,  because  it  is 


LIFE  THE  TEST   OF   LEARNING.  501 

matured  in  the  spiritual  school  of  Him  who  knows  all 
that  is  in  man. 

"  Lift  up  your  eyes  to  the  fields ;  they  are  white 
already  to  harvest."  With  the  blessing  of  that  Provi 
dence,  go  to  the  field  of  your  slow,  patient  work.  That 
slowness  of  the  result  may  be  the  bitterest  elemelit  in 
the  discipline. 

"  To-morrow,  and  to-morrow,  and  to-morrow, 
Creeps  in  this  petty  pace  from  day  to  day, 
To  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time." 

Be  content  to  wait  for  Him  with  whom  ages  are  days . 

"  If  but  this  tedious  battle  could  be  fought, 
With  Sparta's  heroes,  at  one  rocky  pass, 
One  day  be  spent  in  dying,  men  had  sought 
The  spot,  and  been  cut  down  like  mower's  grass. 
If  in  the  heart  of  nature  we  might  strive, 
Challenge  to  single  combat  the  great  power, 
Welcome  the  conflict !     But  no  ;  half  alive, 
We  skirmish  with  our  foe  long  hour  by  hour." 

Nevertheless,  —  nevertheless,  —  in  due  season  ye  shall 
reap,  if  ye  faint  not.  Go  out  with  faith,  with  supplica 
tion.  Ye  shall  come  again  in  the  Jubilee  and  Sabbath 
of  the  Resurrection  rejoicing.  And  then,  be  content  if 
it  shall  be  with  you  as  with  the  solemn  pictured  figures 
of  the  returning  warriors,  in  the  historical  galleries  of 
the  Italian  city,  where  the  reverent  and  pious  victors 
are  seen,  not  in  chariots,  nor  with  sceptres,  nor  on 
thrones,  nor  with  crowns  on  their  heads,  but  kneeling, 
the  crowns  lifted  in  their  hands,  looking  upward,  and 
giving,  thanks  to  God. 


SEKMON     XXV. 

THE  HOUSE  OF  PRAYER.* 

MY   HOUSE   SHALL   BE   CALLED    THE    HOUSE    OF    PRAYER.  —  Mat 
thew  xxi.  13. 

BY  the  permission  of  the  Infinite  One,  through  whose 
wisdom  the  first  purpose  was  shaped,  of  whose  love  the 
bounty  was  given,  and  in  whose  strength  the  builders 
have  labored,  this  sacred  work,  begun  a  little  more  than 
two  years  ago,  stands  complete.  It  betokens  a  truth 
old  as  the  human  soul.  It  registers  a  want  of  our 
nature  ever-new  and  ever-present,  —  communion  with 
our  Creator.  It  attests  a  life  at  once  above  and  before 
us,  of  loftier  joy  and  everlasting  goodness.  It  helps 
perpetuate  the  promise  of  man's  redemption  from  his 
only  real  evil  and  of  his  forgiveness  for  his  only  terrible 
wrong.  It  is,  in  design,  a  copy,  all  unworthy,  but  such 
as  our  mortal  penury  could  bring,  of  that  mysterious 
Pattern  of  perfect  social  adoration  "  in  the  Mount,"  of 
which  the  praise  is  pure,  whence  they  go  no  more  out, 
"  eternal  in  the  heavens."  May  the  Ancient  of  Days, 
the  Father  of  all  that  now  live,  and  the  God  of  all 


*  A  sermon  preached  at  the  dedication  of  the  "  Appleton  Chapel,"  of 
Harvard  University,  in  Cambridge,  October  17, 


THE   HOUSE   OF  PRAYER.  503 

hope,  God  and  Father  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  who 
was  dead,  and  is  alive  again,  and  who  liveth  evermore, 
accept  it  into  his  keeping,  save  it  from  profanation, 
guard  it  from  misuse,  and  hallow  it  as  his  own  House 
of  Prayer ! 

It  would  seem  to  form  a  fit  introduction  to  the 
course  of  thought  hest  suited  to  this  service,  and  at  the 
same  time  duly  honor  the  noble  spirit  of  Christian 
beneficence  which,  from  one  generation  to  another,  pro 
vides  and  renews  these  instruments  of  faith  and  inlets 
of  a  heavenly  inspiration,  if  we  notice  first  the  events 
that  led  to  the  rearing  of  the  edifice,  and  the  special 
generosity  that  has  been  thought  worthy  to  give  it  the 
name  by  which  it  is  to  be  known. 

Since  the  time  of  the  amicable  withdrawal  of  the 
College  community  from  its  connection  with  the  First 
Parish,  in  1814,  the  public  worship  of  the  Lord's  Day 
and  other  religious  services  have  been  held  in  Univer 
sity  Hall.  That  building,  as  is  well  known,  was  reared 
and  has  been  occupied  for  the  united  purposes  of  recita 
tion-rooms  and  a  Chapel.  For  a  time,  also,  there  were 
uses  of  some  of  its  apartments  still  less  in  keeping  with 
the  designs  of  a  sanctuary  than  the  ordinary  secular  ex 
ercises  of  the  week.  Two  of  the  rooms  were  devoted  to 
a  commons  ordinary,  and  the  basement  was  given  over  to 
a  store-room,  a  kitchen,  and  lodgings  for  servants.  To 
invest  such  a  spot  with  the  select  and  hallowed  impres 
sions  of  a  sanctuary  would  be  quite  too  difficult  for 
minds  the  most  disciplined  and  a  devotional  habit  the 
most  mature.  To  attempt  it  amidst  the  less  fixed  con 
victions  and  the  forming  influences  of  a  seminary  for 
the  young  seems  still  more  hopeless. 

The  inconvenience  and  interruptions  were  felt  and 


504  THE   HOUSE   OF   PRAYER. 

deplored  long  before  a  way  could  be  found  for  their 
remedy.  A  specific  official  notice  of  these  unfavorable 
arrangements  appears  to  have  been  first  taken  in  a  re 
port  to  the  Overseers  from  the  Treasurer  of  the  Corpo 
ration,  Samuel  A.  Eliot,  just  twelve  years  ago  last 
week,  October  12,  1846.  They  are  there  mentioned  as 
"  the  most  important  of  existing  deficiencies  "  connected 
with  the  Institution.  "  The  present  Chapel,''  says  this 
judicious  paper,  "  is  at  once  too  small,  and  ill  adapted, 
from  its  appearance  and  its  connection  with  adjoining 
apartments,  to  its  peculiar  purpose.  It  may  seem  to 
those  accustomed  to  the  severe  simplicity  of  our  Puritan 
church  architecture  that  the  effect  of  the  mere  appear 
ance  of  a  room  used  for  religious  worship  could  not  and 
ought  not  to  be  great,  and  it  may  be  freely  admitted, 
that,  if  it  were  used  for  once  or  for  a  few  times  only,  it 
would  not  be  important }  but  nothing  which  must  be 
often  repeated  is  insignificant,  and  it  is  therefore  of  no 
doubtful  utility  that  the  worship  of  God,  which  is  to  be 
often  renewed,  should  be  so  conducted  as  to  attract  and 
not  to  repel."  On  the  last  day  of  the  same  year,  Presi 
dent  Everett,  in  the  first  of  his  annual  reports,  dis 
tinctly  recommends  "  the  erection  of  a  Chapel  exclu 
sively  consecrated  to  religious  exercises,"  as  "  one  of  the 
most  pressing  wants  of  the  Institution."  An  earnest 
recurrence  was  made  to  the  subject  in  each  of  the  two 
remaining  reports  of  the  same  presiding  officer.  At  the 
close  of  the  last  of  these  documents,  his  large  observa 
tion  and  thoughtful  regard  for  every  higher  object  of 
education,  of  learning  and  the  State,  led  this  devoted 
son  and  friend  of  the  University  to  remark  as  follows : 
"  Wholesome  habits,  salutary  traditions,  winning  exam 
ples,  revered  memories  and  generous  sentiments,  are 


THE   HOUSE   OF  PRAYER.  505 

more  imDortant  toward  effecting  the  great  purposes  for 
which  the  societies  of  men  are  formed,  than  the  letter  of 
the  law.  But  of  influence  more  vital  and  controlling 
than  all  are  the  softened  temper  and  gentle  spirit  which 
nothing  but  a  religious  principle  can  create.  The  de 
votional  exercises  of  the  Chapel  are  the  foundation  of 
the  discipline  of  the  place,  and  apart  from  their  higher 
office,  are  all-important  in  this  respect.  Nothing  which 
can  make  the  Chapel-services  interesting  and  duly  af 
fecting  should,  in  the  judgment  of  the  President,  be 
spared.  They  should  be  regarded,  throughout  the 
Institution,  as  the  first  of  duties.  The  aspect  and 
arrangements  of  the  Chapel  should  invite  to  meditation, 
and  the  organ  and  a  solemn  chant  of  select  portions 
of  the  Psalms,  or  c  the  imperishable  hymns  of  the 
Church,'  should  be  united  with  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures  and  the  offering  of  prayer."  He  further 
expresses  his  belief  that  a  service  of  this  description, 
with  auxiliary  measures  for  the  spiritual  culture  of  the 
students,  "  would,  by  the  blessing  of  Providence,  do 
more  to  increase  the  usefulness "  of  the  seminary 
"  than  an  indefinite  multiplication  of  means  and  appli 
ances  purely  secular." 

It  was  found,  however,  and  reluctantly  confessed,  by 
the  author  of  these  views  and  by  all  the  departments 
of  the  government,  that  such  a  structure  as  was  needed 
was  entirely  beyond  the  funds  at  the  command  of  the 
Corporation,  and  that,  if  the  object  was  to  be  effected 
at  all,  recourse  must  be  had  to  the  Christian  liberal 
ity  of  "  the  children  and  friends  of  the  University." 

From  the  enlightened  dispositions  of  a  few  men  be 
longing  chiefly  to  the  last  of  the  two  classes  here  desig 
nated,  —  the  friends,  wise  and  liberal,  of  the  University, 


506  THE  HOUSE   OF  PRAYER. 

though  not  its  children,  the  patronage  so  deeply  needed 
was,  not  long  after,  to  be  gratuitously  proposed. 

Samuel  Appleton,  a  merchant  of  Boston,  was  of  a 
family  of  which  it  has  been  noticed  that  from  a  very 
early  period  in  the  colonial  settlements  it  has  been  re 
markable  for  the  "  uniformity  in  the  character  of  the 
individuals  embraced  in  it ;  "  and  of  that  character  it 
may  be  said,  with  equal  justice,  that  among  its  promi 
nent  traits  have  been  integrity,  firmness,  enterprise,  and 
patriotism.  Two  of  its  members  have  been  eminent  in 
their  relation  to  the  interests  both  of  learning  and  relig 
ion  in  New  England.  The  first  settler  of  that  name 
emigrated  in  obedience  to  the  stanch  convictions  of  a 
Puritan  believer.  He  afterwards  refused  to  share  in 
the  persecution  of  the  Antinomians  and  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son,  and  lost  office  for  that  liberality.  It  is  an  agreea 
ble  association  in  the  thoughts  of  this  occasion,  that  one 
of  his  descendants,  as  this  audience  will  remember,  was 
for  the  long  period  of  about  sixty-seven  years  of  the 
last  century  the  pastor  of  this  College,  as  the  minister 
of  the  First  Parish  in  Cambridge,  was  the  brother-in- 
law  of  one  of  its  most  efficient  and  celebrated  Presi 
dents,  Edward  Holyoke,  and  was  the  second  divine  on 
whom  it  conferred  a  degree  for  theological  and  ministe 
rial  eminence,  —  the  faithful  Christian  teacher,  a  record 
of  whose  simple-hearted  wisdom,  apostolic  devotion,  and 
patriarchal  dignity,  is  to  be  sought  in  the  after-lives  of 
the  two  thousand  graduates  that  listened  to  his  preach 
ing  and  observed  his  life;  and  whose  motto,  "  Ortho 
doxy  and  Charity,"  was  recorded  not  only  on  the  can 
vas  of  the  portrait  which  still  preserves  his  likeness  in 
our  gallery  in  Harvard  Hall,  but  on  all  his  profession 
and  discourse  and  labor,  as  a  servant  of  the  College  and 
the  Church. 


THE   HOUSE   OF   PRAYER.  507 

Another  of  the  kindred  was,  at  a  later  period,  a  can 
didate  for  a  theological  professorship  in  this  University, 
received  one  of  its  honorary  degrees,  and  was  twelve 
years  President  of  Bowdoin  College,  in  Maine. 

A  common  ancestor  of  theirs,  Samuel  Appleton,  was 
in  public  service  at  an  earlier  time,  was  appointed  com 
mander  of  the  Massachusetts  forces  in  Philip's  war, 
because  he  was  a  person  "  very  sensible  of  ye  cause  and 
people  of  God,"  was  counted  factious  by  the  Royal  Gov 
ernors  Randolph  and  Andros,  on  account  of  his  repub 
lican  principles,  and  appealed  to  the  people  from  a  rock 
at  Lynn,  still  called  "  Appleton' s  pulpit."  His  de 
spatches,  dated  at  Hadley,  abound  in  proofs  of  skill, 
bravery,  and  piety. 

Our  benefactor  belonged  to  that  worthy  class  of  New 
England  men  who  are  born  in  frugal  homes,  gain  their 
balanced  power  of  character  by  a  modest  conquest  of 
many  hardships,  and  pass  out  into  large  usefulness 
through  a  course  of  discipline  and  achievement  as 
favorable  to  the  attributes  of  a  genuine  manhood  as 
almost  any  in  the  world.  Forbidden  a  personal  share 
in  the  culture  of  the  higher  seats  of  learning,  they 
become  the  patrons  of  letters,  the  founders  of  institu 
tions  and  chairs  of  instruction,  and  command  the 
esteem  and  confidence  of  scholars.  Bred  to  habits 
of  acquisition  and  calculation,  they  rise  superior  to 
the  meagre  prospects  of  a  mere  mercenary  ambition, 
not  only  dignifying  commerce  by  their  public  spirit,  but 
forwarding  science  itself  by  their  practical  sagacity  and 
energy.  For  that  part  of  education  which  consists  in 
the  study  of  books  Mr.  Appleton  was  limited  through 
his  early  years  to  the  district  school  and  such  private 
hours  as  made  the  margin  of  a  busy  and  laborious 

43 


508  THE   HOUSE   OF   PRAYER. 

employment.  But  by  assimilating  and  using  what  he 
learned,  by  an  intelligent  intercourse  with  men,  by 
travels  abroad,  by  a  self-knowledge  and  sterling  sense 
ever  prohibiting  in  him  the  assumption  which  is  the 
fatal  mark  of  ignorance,  and  by  that  conscientious  dis 
cipline  of  his  faculties  which  is  the  nobler  part  of  wis 
dom,  he  entered  in  unchallenged  among  our  foremost 
order  of  men.  The  fullest  and  highest  heads  found  a 
manliness  in  him  that  made  him  their  peer.  In  the 
stainless  justice  and  frankness  that  ruled  his  dealings, 
"  he  knew  but  one  way  of  speaking,  and  that  was  to 
say,  straight  on,  the  truth."  In  a  suit  at  law,  a  jury 
once  found  in  his  favor,  even  against  some  apparent 
odds  of  evidence,  on  nothing  but  the  plain  declaration 
of  his  word,  —  with  this  almost  unexampled  explana 
tion  of  their  verdict,  that  "  they  were  quite  sure  Mr. 
Appleton  would  not  dispute  the  payment  of  the  note, 
except  on  the  certainty  that  he  did  not  owe  it."  Eager 
gainseekers,  bewildered  by  financial  success,  or  enslaved 
by  a  lucrative  opportunity,  saw  in  him  the  fine  example 
of  a  self-control  which  subdued  the  passion  for  wealth 
just  when  it  is  most  apt  to  grow  despotic,  voluntarily 
withdrew  him  from  all  the  tempting  prizes  of  fortune 
before  he  was  sixty  years  old,  and  devoted  the  rest  of  his 
life  to  doing  good.  There  was,  indeed,  as  all  who  knew 
him  will  confess,  and  as  it  is  more  than  proper  here  to 
remember,  a  singular  sweetness  and  simplicity  in  the 
old  age  of  this  venerable,  benevolent,  unpretending  citi 
zen  and  Christian,  —  master  of  his  possessions  and  of 
himself.  There  were  sufferings  and  infirmities  of  the 
body,  but  he  could  better  bear  all  these  than  the  pain 
of  turning  back  the  humblest  deserving  applicant  from 
his  door,  or  closing  his  bountiful  hand  on  a  dollar  that 


THE   HOUSE   OF   PRAYER.  509 

was  needed  by  Christ's  poor.  Such  cheerfulness  did 
this  charity  breathe  through  his  household,  that  it 
would  seem  as  if  all  the  new  gladness  and  the  hearty 
benedictions  of  the  wretchedness  he  brightened  came 
back  and  pitched  their  permanent  tents  about  him. 
Simple  as  a  child,  the  generous  steward  of  God's 
bounty  sat  there  amidst  his  affluence,  listening,  pity 
ing,  giving,  till  sordid  riches  were  transfigured  before 
him,  till  the  pursuits  that  we  commonly  call  worldly 
looked  divine,  the  curse  that  clings  to  Dives's  lot  was 
loosened,  and  even  money  wore  the  stamp  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  Let  me  say  that  the  only  time  I  ever  saw 
him  I  went  to  ask  help  for  the  education  of  a  minister 
of  the  Gospel ;  and  that  when  I  went  away,  with  his 
willing  gift,  he  said  these  rare  words,  rare  even  from 
generous  people,  "  When  you  know  of  some  other  very 
good  object,  I  wish  you  would  come  to  me  again." 
Mercy,  in  each  of  its  benignant  forms,  and  religion,  and 
literature,  and  great  industrial  enterprises  full  of  bene 
fit  to  the  people,  felt  the  force  of  his  disinterested  pur 
pose.  As  little  narrowed  by  the  vanity  which  makes  a 
merit  of  straitened  beginnings  as  by  the  other  vanity 
which  is  ashamed  of  them,  he  only  said,  when  he  heard 
the  circumstances  of  his  youth  and  age  contrasted, 
that  but  for  a  physical  constitution  naturally  feeble  he 
should  have  been  as  well  content  with  the  early  labor 
as  the  later  leisure.  He  remembered  the  humble  work 
men  in  the  Eastern  woods  who  used  to  lend  him  their 
arms  in  lifting  logs  beyond  his  strength,  and  even  their 
children  saw  kindnesses  falling  into  their  dwellings 
from  the  same  unknown  and  unforgetful  giver.  For 
several  of  his  last  years  he  consecrated  the  entire  in 
come  of  his  estates  to  charity.  And  when  nature  was 


510  THE   HOUSE   OF   PRAYER. 

putting  a  term  upon  his  personal  munificence,  by  his 
will,  after  numerous  and  ample  specific  legacies,  he 
bequeathed  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  trust  to 
his  executors,  —  in  the  language  of  the  instrument, 
"  to  be  by  them  applied  and  distributed  for  scientific, 
literary,  religious,  and  charitable  purposes."  He  died 
on  the  twelfth  of  July,  1853,  in  the  eighty-eighth  year 
of  his  age. 

Both  by  the  consistent  practice  of  the  original  donor, 
then,  sustained  through  a  long  career  of  benefactions 
in  this  kind,  and  by  the  special  directions  of  his  last 
testament,  we  are  justified  in  honoring  Samuel  Apple- 
ton  of  Boston  as  the  source  of  this  welcome  accession 
to  the  resources  and  right  conduct  of  the  Institu 
tion.  Happily,  however,  for  the  University,  the  dis 
charge  of  these  trusts  fell  to  executors  who  partook  of 
the  liberal  designs  and  temper  of  the  testator.  In 
November,  1854,  these  trustees,  Nathan  Appleton, 
William  Appleton,  and  Nathaniel  Ingersoll  Bowditch, 
communicated  to  the  Corporation  their  decision  to 
appropriate  the  value  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  of  this 
fund  for  the  purpose  of  erecting  "  a  building  of  gran 
ite,  freestone,  or  marble,  as  a  Chapel  for  religious  ser 
vices."  The  gift  was  accepted,  in  the  words  of  Presi 
dent  Walker,  as  "  timely  aid  to  supply  a  pressing  want 
of  the  University."  At  the  same  time  it  was  voted 
by  the  President  and  Fellows  "  that  the  Chapel  to  be 
thus  erected  shall  be  named  the  Appleton  Chapel,  in 
memory  of"  this  "munificent  benefactor  of  learning 
and  humanity."  The  plans  were  soon  after  proposed 
and  submitted  ;  the  ground  was  broken  in  July,  1856, 
and  the  corner-stone  of  the  structure  was  laid,  with 
suitable  ceremonies,  on  the  second  day  of  May,  1857. 


THE   HOUSE   OF   PRAYER.  511 

We  are  gathered  to  thank  the  providence  of  God,  to 
acknowledge  the  faithfulness  of  good  men,  and  to  set 
the  building  apart  as  a  "  House  of  Prayer." 

The  College  has  not  waited  these  two  hundred  and 
twenty  years  for  the  appointment  of  God's  worship 
within  its  walls.  Knowing  well  that  grand  article  of  its 
faith,  that  "  God  is  a  spirit,"  and  that  "  they  that  wor 
ship  him  must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth,"  its 
guardians  have  provided  for  the  daily  homage  of  each 
generation,  within  such  plain  substitutes  for  the  sepa 
rate  sanctuary  as  poverty,  or  other  needs,  and  the  times 
allowed.  Through  a  line  of  reverend  teachers,  its  pre 
siding  and  other  officers,  and  the  ministers  of  the 
churches,  it  has  striven  not  to  falter  from  the  elevated 
standard  of  its  two  early  charters :  the  first  of  1642, 
proposing  as  the  object  of  the  seminary,  "  piety,  moral 
ity,  and  learning ; "  the  second,  of  eight  years  later, 
"  knowledge  and  godliness."  From  the  dawning  hour 
of  its  distinction  it  has  never  been  wholly  unmindful  of 
its  loyalty  to  the  Messiah.  The  leaves  of  the  vine 
planted  by  the  hand  of  the  Son  of  Man  have  been 
patiently  dropped  into  this  fountain  of  learning.  At 
last  a  day  of  better  outward  appointments  has  come : 
God  grant  it  may  prove  a  day  of  nobler  spiritual  zeal ! 
We  see  laid  on  these  grounds,  sequestered  already  to 
science  and  letters,  this  stately  token  of  another  reality, 
—  faith  in  things  not  seen  ;  and  this  we  are  to  conse 
crate  to  the  King  Eternal,  Immortal,  Invisible,  the  only 
wise  God ! 

The  chief  meaning  of  our  assembly  and  the  first 
cause  of  this  day's  festival  is  that  this  building  repre 
sents  Religion.  And  since  Christ  has  come,  and  died, 
and  risen,  we  apprehend  religion  only  in  him.  Histori- 

43* 


512  THE   HOUSE    OF   PRAYER. 

cally  we  know  the  Father  only  in  the  "  Word  made 
flesh."  Experimentally,  we  know  the  power  of  the 
Spirit  only  by  the  life  Divine  communicated  to  ours. 
The  upward-looking  welcome  of  that  Spirit,  with  its 
fruitful  transmission  into  a  practical  and  consistent 
action,  is  the  organizing  law  of  the  Church ;  a  social 
body  with  conscious  members,  under  its  living  Head. 
Here  is  the  one  essential  principle  of  a  devout,  humane, 
indestructible  church-life.  A  sanctuary  is  one  of  the 
chambers  of  its  retirement,  one  of  its  places  of  replen 
ishing  and  strengthening,  one  of  its  oratories  of  prayer : 
not  its  only  home  :  that  is  the  whole  field  of  the  world 
where  men  work,  arid  love,  and  suffer,  and  sin,  and  die. 
The  house  of  the  spiritual  Church  has  no  roof  but 
heaven :  no  walls  but  the  ever-widening  bounds  of 
space  and  time ;  nay,  it  abides  in  infinitude  ;  "  the  true 
tabernacle  which  the  Lord  pitched,  and  not  man." 

Now,  this  religion  is  of  three  elements,  with  a  need, 
a  nurture,  and  an  expression  for  each. 

First,  it  is  an  idea;  and  as  an  idea,  held  by  the 
understanding,  its  need  is  to  be  cleared  ;  its  nurture  is 
instruction ;  its  expression  is  doctrine.  Perfect  this, 
and  you  rid  the  Church  of  intellectual  error. 

Secondly,  religion  is  a  faith,  and  as  a  faith,  held  in 
the  soul,  its  need  is  to  be  purified.  Its  nurture  is 
spiritual  communion ;  its  expression  is  worship.  Per 
fect  this,  and  you  rid  the  Church  of  superstition  on  the 
one  hand,  and  unbelief  on  the  other. 

Thirdly,  Religion  is  a  life  ;  and  as  a  life,  bred  in  the 
practical  force  of  the  will,  its  need  is  freedom  ;  its  nur 
ture  is  action  ;  its  expression  is  righteousness.  Perfect 
this,  and  you  rid  the  Church  of  its  selfish  indolence 
and  mammonism. 


THE   HOUSE   OF  PRAYER.  513 

For  each  of  these  elements  a  place  is  found  in  the 
well-ordered  symmetry  and  solemn  beauty  of  a  genuine 
Fold  of  Christ.  To  lend  each  of  them  energy,  simpli 
city,  constancy,  is  the  direct  end  of  the  public  meeting 
of  the  sanctuary. 

Interests  like  these,  according  to  the  common  dic 
tates  of  our  nature,  and  the  best  interpretations  we  can 
put  on  God's  providence  with  man,  tend  to  clothe 
themselves  in  institutions.  The  State,  the  Family, 
Education,  Commerce,  and  the  less  definite  and  less 
systematized  form  of  human  intercourse  that  we  call 
Society,  furnish  sufficient  analogies.  History,  heathen 
hardly  less  than  Christian,  is  the  record,  —  for,  mixed 
with  all  the  surface-dust  of  the  globe  moulder  the  frag 
ments  of  altars,  priests,  temples,  shrines.  Results  are 
the  argument.  Round  the  world,  and  through  the  cen 
turies,  men  embody  their  strong  thoughts  and  dearest 
hopes  in  shapes  presentable  to  the  senses.  If  reasons 
are  asked,  the  plainest  seems  to  be  that  men,  at  pres 
ent,  are  neither  ghosts,  nor  brutes,  but  are  of  both  body 
and  spirit.  With  such  convenience  as  their  culture  has 
contrived,  with  such  grace  or  majesty  as  their  taste  can 
admire  and  their  skill  create,  with  such  durability  as 
the  transient  materials  or  fugitive  fashions  can  com 
mand,  they  found  and  build  and  adorn  the  dwellings 
of  their  deep  desires.  Legislation,  armies,  marriage, 
learning,  exchange,  and  the  social  custom  that  ever 
varies  but  never  dies,  all  seek  shelter,  method,  signs, 
forms.  So  along  with  statesmanship  and  generalship, 
—  with  the  husband,  the  soldier,  the  scholar,  the  mer 
chant,  and  the  neighbor,  religion  also,  in  the  persistent 
organization  of  its  designs,  taking  on  the  externals  of  a 
Form,  sends  for  the  architect:  and  to  Him  who  is  a 


514  THE   HOUSE   OF   PRAYER. 

spirit,  filling  the  universe,  invisible,  temples  are  built 
"  with  hands." 

Passing,  then,  from  the  interior  view,  by  the  steps  of 
an  analysis  so  obvious,  we  come  to  inquire  the  precise 
objects  of  the  outward  structure  of  God's  house.  They 
may  be  gathered  from  what  has  already  appeared. 

I.  First  is  Worship :  worship,  old  as  humanity ;  yet 
a  worship  springing  for  us  only  at  the  call  of  that  Gos 
pel  of  reconciliation  which  blends  Fatherhood,  Medi 
ation,  and  Brotherhood  together,  —  its  threefold  and 
absolute  Revelation.  "  Whom  therefore  ye  ignorantly 
worship,  Him  declare  I  unto  you :  "  how  right  that  this 
should  have  been  spoken  from  the  Athenian  Areopagus, 
=. —  the  hill-top  of  that  luminous  centre  of  the  old  Pagan 
civilization :  where  stoics  and  epicureans  and  soldiers, 
—  philosophy  and  pleasure  and  power,  —  Alexandria 
and  Corinth  and  Rome,  and  the  three  continents,  could 
hear !  The  kneeling  devotees  must  bend  in  a  lowlier 
prostration,  and  then  rise  to  a  wiser  work.  The  won 
dering  sages,  —  men  of  intellects  so  mighty  and  impe 
rial  that  no  after-age  discredits  the  originality  and  com 
prehensiveness  of  their  genius,  —  must  confess  a  diviner 
wisdom  than  the  Academy's.  The  most  seeing  poets, 
like  that  Aratus  whom  Paul's  scholarship  could  quote, 
must  awake  from  dreaming  to  the  solid  convictions 
that  no  daylight  scatters.  The  patient  sufferers  must 
turn  their  aching  eyes  to  a  more  miraculous  oracle,  to 
feel  their  pain  touched  and  released  by  the  great  Healer 
of  Nazareth.  And  the  prayer  and  the  praise  were 
thenceforth  to  ascend  with  the  promise  ever  falling, 
"  Seek,  and  ye  shall  find  :  "  "  Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask 
in  my  name,  I  will  give  it  you." 

Worship  is  the  docility  of  the  soul.     Whence  does  it 


THE   HOUSE   OF   PEAYEIl.  515 

come  ?  It  is  of  reverence,  the  most  august  and  pro 
found  of  man's  capacities,  because  it  reaches  instantly 
from  his  humblest  self-distrust  to  the  loftiest  sufficiency, 
laying  the  trembling  arm  of  his  infirmity  on  the  Al 
mighty  throne.  An  attribute  of  all  the  stateliest  and 
broadest  men  from  the  beginning !  How  justly  it  has 
been  said,  "  Whatever  is  wise,  or  strong,  or  loving 
enough  in  this  world  to  outlive  the  changes  of  human 
admiration,  will  be  found  to  have  the  tincture  of  in 
tense  faith.  They  who  have  most  affected  the  fates 
of  mankind  have  not  attained  their  great  dimensions 
without  bearing  a  divine  secret  in  their  souls ;  they 
have  been  men  of  trust  and  prayer ;  and,  familiar  with 
an  Infinite  presence,  have  reached  the  stature  which 
throws  so  grand  a  shadow  over  history."  It  is  of  aspi 
ration  ;  —  the  filial,  fallen  spirit  longing  and  struggling 
for  its  source  and  its  rest  again  ;  this  aspiration  differ 
ing  from  ambition  as  soaring  straight  up,  with  open 
mind,  from  creeping  obliquely  with  a  face  averted  in 
shame ;  or  as  self-promotion  is  different  from  sacrifice. 
It  is  of  confession,  crying  out  of  a  prodigal's  penitent 
home-sickness,  and  a  publican's  sincerity,  "  I  have 
sinned  against  Heaven,  and  in  thy  sight ;  "  "  God  be 
merciful  to  me,  a  sinner." 

Without  worship  our  knowledge  grows  arrogant,  and 
therein  grows  weak,  crawling  back  by  vanity  to  igno 
rance,  hiding  its  own  lamp,  and  cheating  itself  with 
knowingness,  or  sciolism,  for  wisdom,  —  a  blunder  that 
more  than  one  chapter  of  the  sullied  pages  of  literary 
biography  recites.  Without  worship  enterprise  is  for 
ever  investing  for  final  failure.  Just  as  undevout  sci 
ence,  in  the  largest  view  of  creation,  is  unscientific, 
because  it  stops  between  causes  and  the  Cause,  (is  geo- 


516  THE   HOUSE   OF   PRAYER. 

centric,  or  at  most  heliocentric,  but  not  theocentric)  so 
invention  and  labor  deny  their  true  principles  and  ends 
by  Atheism,  because  they  retreat  unbelieving  from  the 
one  "  open  secret,"  and  forfeit  the  supreme  blessing. 
Their  rebellious  architecture  is  of  the  order  of  Babel  and 
Babylon,  in  every  country  they  colonize,  in  every  city 
they  crowd.  For  in  rearing  the  mansion  of  their  civili 
zation  and  multiplying  its  machinery,  they  lose  the  one 
world-wide  language  of  brotherly  love.  They  get  con 
founded  with  the  dialects  of  caste  and  hate.  They 
weave  purple  and  fine  linen  for  oppression  and  lust. 
They  pile  their  walls  so  high  that  they  shut  off 
the  beams  of  heaven.  Without  worship  manhood  is 
dwarfed,  for  it  ignores  the  only  supreme  intelligence, 
the  only  irresistible  power,  the  only  infinite  love,  —  the 
Highest,  the  Greatest,  the  Best  One  ;  and  he  who  ought 
to  open  out  on  every  side  of  him,  by  every  breathing 
pore  of  his  constitution,  and  every  thirsty  passion  of  his 
immortality,  towards  the  boundless  realm  that  encom 
passes,  invites,  and  waits  to  transfigure  him,  shrinks 
self-limited.  His  very  acquisitions  and  accomplish 
ments,  which  ought  to  lift  his  position  and  ennoble 
his  attitude,  by  the  veil  they  interpose  between  his 
inmost  life  and  Heaven  only  cramp  his  proportions  and 
blind  his  eyes.  The  curse  of  pride  and  the  fall,  on  the 
fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge,  returns. 

Corresponding  to  human  worship,  its  object,  its  an 
swer,  is  the  influence  of  the  Spirit.  This  is  the  Com 
forter  Christ  promised  and  gave,  to  abide  forever,  to 
testify  of  him,  to  help  our  infirmities ;  to  convince  of 
righteousness,  of  sin,  and  of  judgment ;  to  revive  the 
hearts  of  the  humble  and  contrite;  to  renew,  to 
quicken,  to  sanctify ;  —  to  make  intercessions  for  us 


THE   HOUSE   OP   PRAYER.  517 

with  unutterable  earnestness.  Faith  in  that  heavenly 
gift,  which  would  seem  to  be  the  simplest  act  of  Chris 
tian  consciousness,  is  now  the  foremost  want  of  the 
Race,  —  within  the  Church,  I  think,  and  without.  All 
the  graces  of  a  richer  and  more  genial  piety  wait  on  its 
growth.  It  would  be  at  once  the  restoration  of  primi 
tive  zeal  in  the  brotherhood,  of  simplicity  in  adminis 
tration,  of  holy  fire  in  the  preaching,  of  pure  and  noble 
manners  in  society.  It  would  melt  the  Pantheist's 
frosty  speculation.  It  would  vitalize  the  formalist's 
routine.  It  would  irradiate  the  dulness  of  materialism. 
It  would  shame  sectarian  suspicions  and  silence  the  big 
ot's  malediction.  It  would  reinstall  the  apostolic  catho 
licity  amidst  the  "  diversities  of  gifts "  begotten  of 
these  periods  of  discovery  and  inquiry.  "  Ask,  and 
ye  shall  receive  "  it.  To  the  Holy  Spirit,  then,  we  ded 
icate  this  place. 

II.  Secondly,  Ordinances :  —  Those  slight  but  stead 
fast  bonds  which  join  the  successive  spiritual  genera 
tions  together,  and  by  the  mysterious  adjustment  of 
their  simplicity  to  our  twofold  constitution,  as  of  an 
outward  and  inner  life,  becoming,  —  what  Augustine 
called  them  before  falsehood  put  them  in  between  the 
heart  and  God,  —  "  life-giving  sacraments  "  to  the  heart 
from  God.  Surely  experience  is  lost,  and  Christian 
progress  is  hopeless,  if  we  cannot  retain  what  was  of 
reason  and  of  grace  together  amidst  the  mistakes  of  our 
fathers,  —  nay,  if  we  cannot  find  the  limit  where  reac 
tions  exhaust  their  office,  and  so  recover,  after  a  reform 
atory  suspension,  any  of  those  affecting  ceremonies, 
which  Truth  had  to  tear  off  when  she  played  the  icono 
clast  for  God  and  stripped  away  the  fetters  of  idolatry. 

The  special  function  of  our  two  sacraments,  as  setting 


518  THE   HOUSE   OF   PRAYER. 

forth  to  the  believer,  at  impressive  intervals,  what  is 
most  personal  in  our  Lord's  ministry  and  redemption, 
harmonizes  certainly  with  the  deeper  intuitions  of  na 
ture.  Seizing  on  the  universal  emblem  of  purification, 
it  pours  the  water  of  baptism,  —  finding  the  great  ex 
ample  of  Christ's  humility,  in  condescending  to  it  that 
he  might  "  fulfil  all  righteousness  "  and  be  in  all  things 
an  example  to  his  disciples,  to  lie  at  the  very  beginning 
of  his  public  ministry,  —  while  the  charge  was  issued, 
just  when  he  was  about  to  ascend  up  out  of  their  sight, 
"  Go  ye  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost:"  the  one  universal  formula  of  the  creed 
of  Christendom  affirmed  in  its  initiatory  rite.  Then, 
retiring,  with  awe  and  wonder,  to  the  shaded  upper 
chamber,  just  before  the  agony,  —  Gethsemane  to-night 
and  Calvary  to-morrow,  —  it  receives  from  the  same 
"  holy  and  innocent  and  immortal  hands  "  the  common 
food  and  the  common  drink  of  his  countrymen  and  his 
time,  the  sign  of  the  body  broken,  of  the  blood  poured 
out,  —  the  living,  redeeming,  infinite  sacrifice  for  man. 
And  there  hearing  him  say,  "  This  do  in  remembrance 
of  me,"  with  gladness  and  trust  and  love  quite  unspeak 
able,  penetrating,  thrilling,  exalting  all  the  heart,  faith 
cries  eagerly  in  answer,  "  This,  Lord,  this  now  and 
ever,  and  with  all  thy  saints  on  earth,  will  I  do  in 
remembrance  of  thee  !  " 

For  the  impressive  celebration  of  both  these  uniting 
and  animating  ordinances  of  the  Church  wise  and  gen 
erous  thought  has  been  taken,  as  you  will  witness,  in 
the  arrangements  of  this  building.  —  To  Christ  Jesus, 
then,  whose  personal  life  regenerates,  whose  death  re 
deems,  and  whose  intercessions  redeliver  his  people 


THE   HOUSE   OF   PRAYER.  519 

from  all  the  bondage  and  misery  and  waste  of  sin, 
making  them  that  were  dead  alive,  and  causing  that 
"  whosoever  loveth  and  believeth  in  Him  shall  never 
die,"  we  dedicate  it. 

III.  Thirdly,  Human  Duties,  both  in  men  and 
towards  men.  All  worship  and  ordinances,  Divine 
influence  and  the  Messiah's  mission,  terminate,  for 
man,  in  the  production  of  holiness,  in  the  growth  of 
character,  and  thus  in  the  glory  of  God.  Disturb  that 
uncompromising  law,  break  utterly  apart  the  solemn 
solitudes  of  devotion  from  the  market  and  the  house 
hold,  sever  the  mount  of  vision  from  the  multitude 
where  justice  and  mercy  are  tempted,  and  then  the 
sanctuary  becomes  only  the  cowardly  retreat  of  an 
imbecile  religious  sentimentalism,  or  else  the  shameless 
parade-ground  of  hypocrisy.  Derange  the  just  propor 
tion  ;  let  form  encroach  on  substance ;  let  the  letter 
that  killeth  overlay  the  spirit  that  giveth  life ;  let  an 
indolent  expectation  of  supernatural  compulsion  mis 
take  itself  for  the  energetic  trust  which  rests  vigilantly 
in  the  Lord,  laboring  for  him,  and  then  the  deadliest 
conceivable  sacrilege  has  desecrated  your  temple,  and 
undone  the  deed  of  to-day.  Be  it  not  forgotten,  that 
this  Chapel  is  raised  for  the  proclamation  of  liberty, 
purity,  charity,  of  right  for  all  men,  truth  in  all  action, 
temperance  in  all  pleasure,  —  the  keeping  under  of  the 
body,  the  eternal  ascendency  of  conscience.  In  the 
early  ages  of  our  faith,  the  victim  of  wrong,  fleeing 
from  his  oppressor,  took  refuge  in  the  sanctuary  of 
Christ,  and  was  safe.  Let  his  cause  still  find  security, 
hiding  in  that  pavilion.  I  read  again  that  warrant 
of  the  preacher,  published  in  the  Synagogue  of  Naza 
reth,  "  The  spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he 

44 


520  THE   HOUSE   OF  PRAYER. 

hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor. 
He  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach 
deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to 
the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to 
preach  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord." 

Wherever  this  communion  has  been  forgotten,  there 
was  a  failure,  not  of  Christianity,  but  of  its  unfaithful 
trustees.  Wherever  it  was  evaded,  by  self-love,  by 
cowardice,  by  an  excess  of  ceremony  or  an  exaggera 
tion  of  dogmatic  conformity,  there  was  a  betrayal  of  the 
Son  of  Man.  And  there  may  be  no  end  of  that  dreary 
contradiction,  till  the  very  rubric  and  eucharist  become 
monuments  of  a  lie,  or  till  the  barbarous  priesthood 
of  infatuation  and  cruelty,  like  the  Mexicans,  build 
even  their  temples  with  bloody  hands,  and  build  them 
of  the  skulls  of  men.  But  wherever  the  Commission 
was  heeded,  the  genuine  fruits  of  the  celestial  seed 
sprang  up  in  the  good  soil  of  the  world,  an  hundred 
fold, —  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  gentleness,  good 
ness,  faith,  meekness,  temperance.  There  the  twofold 
completeness  of  the  kingdom, — the  love  of  God  and  of 
the  neighbor,  —  was  witnessed,  not  in  name  only,  but  in 
deed ;  there  faith  was  not  in  word,  but  in  power  ;  there 
all  the  blessings  of  the  beatitudes  clustered  and  turned 
the  wilderness  into  Eden  ;  there  the  eternal  life  began. 
"  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  my 
name,"  saith  the  Master,  "  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of 
them."  And  therefore  we  dedicate  this  Chapel  to  hu 
manity,  in  all  its  weakness  and  suffering,  in  its  want 
and  aspiration,  in  its  tears  and  its  triumphs,  in  the 
grandeur  of  its  capacity  and  its  immortal  destiny. 

But,  my  friends,  the  purpose  of  this  edifice  is  not 
merely  to  provide  a  shelter  for  our  persons,  while  our 


THE   HOUSE   OP  PRAYER.  521 

spirits  unaided  meditate,  commemorate,  and  adore. 
The  structure  itself  is  a  part  of  the  homage.  Or 
rather  it  is  a  part,  most  expressive  and  helpful,  of 
the  sacred  symbolism  by  which  the  homage  is  made 
real.  We  have  mistaken  the  whole  relations  of  the 
form  of  our  devotions  to  their  spirit,  if  we  regard  this 
house  as  only  a  physical  accessory,  a  dead  wall  between 
our  senses  and  the  noises  of  the  street  or  the  inclemen 
cies  of  the  sky.  Fitness  and  decoration,  and  emblems 
and  images,  in  form  or  color,  already  do,  or  hereafter 
will,  more  and  more,  disown  that  poor  subordination 
of  art,  in  its  most  consecrated  creations,  to  the  dull  de 
mands  of  the  animal  economy.  A  dread  of  the  exag 
gerations  and  perversions  of  the  Past,  not  less  peniten 
tial,  nor  less  merciful .  in  intention,  perhaps,  after  all, 
than  the  Present,  shall  not  always  disarray  and  dis 
figure  the  Church. 

Nor  is  this  Chapel  merely  a  show  of  veneration  before 
the  criticism  of  men,  meant  to  put  our  professions  of 
piety  on  exhibition.  We  have  not  laid  these  stones  and 
spread  this  arch,  I  hope,  to  notify  passengers  that  we, 
for  our  part,  have  concluded  to  believe  in  God,  and  can 
afford  to  spend  something  handsome  to  prove  it.  No ! 
the  building  itself  is  a  part  of  our  conversation  with 
Heaven :  it  is  an  invocation  of  trust :  a  sentence  of 
praise:  a  voice  uttered  to  the  Maker  of  heaven  and 
earth,  no  less  than  the  hymn  we  sing,  or  the  verbal 
petition  we  speak.  It  is  an  article  in  the  confession  of 
our  faith.  It  stands  in  the  solemn,  hereditary  line  with 
the  stone  of  Betjiel,  in  the  Eastern  pasture,  that  Jacob 
called  "  House  of  God,"  —  with  the  Shekinah  over  the 
cherubim,  the  temple  on  Mount  Moriah,  the  synagogue 
of  Nazareth,  where  the  Saviour  stood  up  to  read,  "  The 


bXZ  THE    HOUSE    OF   PRAYER. 

Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,"  —  with  the  upper  cham 
ber  where  the  bread  from  Heaven  and  the  blood  of  the 
true  Yine  furnished  the  sacramental  supper,  —  and 
with  the  room  at  Jerusalem  where  the  tongues  of  fire 
preached  at  the  dedication  of  Christendom,  and  the 
Pentecostal  spirit  inaugurated  the  visible  Church  for 
the  nations. 

And  if  any  object  that  this  makes  a  superfluous  form, 
then  what  do  all  our  signs  of  adoration  signify  ?  our 
postures,  our  ordinances,  our  very  words  of  supplica 
tion  ?  What  has  a  vocal  sound  to  do  with  any  heart's 
secret  communion  with  Him,  who  heareth  in  secret, 
and  needs  no  voice  ?  What  but  this,  —  that  He  who 
alone  knows,  and  who  alone  has  a  right  to  require,  has 
adapted  mortal  means  to  immortal  ends,  and  has  made 
the  fulness  of  the  blessing  to  depend  on  the  appointed 
way? 

For  this  reason,  and  to  such  an  end,  the  very  place 
itself  is  sacred ;  and  we  find  a  precept  for  the  venera 
tion  in  which  every  reverent  mind  will  hold  it  and 
every  hand  that  is  ever  lifted  or  clasped  in  prayer  will 
treat  it.  By  humble  postures  and  subdued  tones,  by 
the  suppression  of  levity  and  haste,  by  steps  that  re 
member  to  follow  His  who  purged  of  its  profanations 
even  the  temple  enshrining  a  Ritual  that  was  to  vanish 
before  his  New  Covenant,  —  by  the  Christian  thought- 
fulness  which  never  enters  but  to  confess,  "  Lo,  God 
is  here,"  and  yet  is  none  the  less  but  more  sure  that 
he  is  everywhere,  —  by  the  stillness  that  hears  a 
voice  ever  saying  in  the  separated  air,  "  The  Lord  is 
in  his  holy  temple,  let  all  the  earth  keep  silence  before 
him,"  we  shall  gladly,  gratefully,  hallow  the  courts  of 
the  House  of  our  Lord.  Like  all  things  set  apart  to 


THE   HOUSE   OF   PR  A  YES.  523 

reserved  and  holy  uses,  it  will  evermore  repeat  to  us 
the  silent  admonitions  of  Him  from  whom  we  came,  of 
Him  who  came  to  us,  —  of  the  eternity  and  the  Judg 
ment  that  are  yet  to  be.  The  more  these  holy  associa 
tions  gather  about  it,  the  more  natural,  the  more  irre 
sistible  will  they  grow.  The  faith  of  generations  will 
invest  and  crown  it. 

Assembled  here,  therefore,  with  these  occasions  of 
praise,  within  the  walls  that  a  Christian  munificence 
has  reared  in  honor  of  Religion  and  Learning,  assisted 
by  the  officers  and  members  of  the  several  departments 
of  the  University,  in  presence  of  those  who  represent  to 
us  the  founder  and  the  efficient  agents  of  his  design,  of 
the  majesty  of  the  Commonwealth,  the  Government  of 
the  Institution  and  its  past  Presidents,  —  in  humility 
and  trust  and  gratitude,  confessing,  "  Lord,  we  believe," 
entreating,  "  Help  our  unbelief,"  recalling  the  high 
examples  of  ancestral  piety,  —  blessing  the  God  of  our 
history,  —  in  the  same  names  into  which  the  true  be 
liever  is  ever  bidden  to  be  baptized,  of  the  Father,  and 
of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  we  now  dedicate 
this  Chapel  to  the  Maker  of  all,  to  the  Saviour  of  the 
world,  to  the  Comforter.  We  dedicate  it  to  its  hal 
lowed  uses,  —  a  fervent  and  reverent  worship,  sincere 
and  holy  ordinances,  an  earnest  and  enlightened  study 
of  all  wisdom  and  righteousness.  We  dedicate  it  to  the 
immortal  heart,  conscience,  soul  of  man.  We  dedicate 
it  to  Faith,  and  Hope,  and  Charity.  We  dedicate  it, 
as  the  successive  inscriptions  of  the  College  Seal  have 
taught  us,  —  to  Truth,  to  the  Master's  glory,  to  Christ 
and  the  Church. 


44* 


NOTE    TO    SERMON    XX. 


THE  course  of  the  author's  experience,  —  if  such  a  reference  may 
be  allowed,  —  prompts  a  few  words  further  on  two  or  three  difficul 
ties  connected  with  the  subject  in  minds  hesitating  to  receive  the 
form  of  the  doctrine,  while  yet  inclined  by  their  reverence  to  offer 
to  the  Saviour  exalted  honors.  The  phrase  "  Son  of  God,"  by  an 
inadequate  conception  of  the  Sonship,  and  a  neglect  of  other  Scrip 
tural  terms,  is  sometimes  made  to  obscure  instead  of  disclosing  our 
Lord's  real  Divinity.  A  vague  view  is  taken  which  is  not  high 
enough  for  the  Trinitarian,  as  the  Trinitarian  must  say,  is  too  high 
for  any  other,  and  is  either  too  high  or  too  low  for  self-consistency. 
A  less  lofty  place  cannot  be  assigned  to  Christ,  with  the  Bible  lying 
open  and  with  Christendom  in  sight ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  can  so 
much  of  dignity  and  majesty  be  consistently  ascribed  to  him  without 
a  full  recognition  of  his  absolute  and  proper  Divinity  ;  that  is,  with 
out  confessing  that  the  basis  or  ground  of  his  being  is  so  identical 
with  that  of  the  Father,  so  truly  Deity,  that  his  personality  is  "  very 
God  of  very  God,"  from  eternity,  self-existent,  and  supreme.  The 
whole  issue  is  close  and  brief.  Jesus  is  either  the  Incarnation,  not 
of  an  abstraction,  a  quality,  or  a  principle,  but  of  God,  or  else  he  is 
a  created  being,  who  began  to  be  in  time,  so  that  there  was  a  time 
when  our  Lord  and  Eedeemer  was  not.  There  is  a  devout  class  of 
men  who  speak  earnestly  of  Christ  as  divine,  and  who  yet  acknowl 
edge  that  they  date  the  beginning  of  his  being  from  the  hour  of  his 
birth  as  the  Son  of  Mary.  But  is  it  possible  that  such  offices  and 
prerogatives  as  the  New  Testament  assigns  to  him  could  belong  to  a 
creature,  coming  into  existence  in  the  midst  of  the  little  history  of 
this  planet,  after  multitudes  of  its  inhabitants  had  lived  and  van- 


NOTE   TO   SERMON    XX.  525 

ished  ?  Could  the  very  life  of  Him  to  whom  belong  judgment,  om 
nipotence,  intercession,  the  gift  of  eternal  life,  and  the  pardon  of  sin, 
date  from  any  late  or  any  early  day  in  mortal  calendars  ? 

Closely  analyzed,  the  idea  of  Incarnation  which  is  advanced  by 
some  writers,  who  yet  deny  that  Christ  is  God,  seems  to  signify 
nothing  really  distinct  in  kind  from  what  takes  place  in  any  living 
child  of  human  birth.  We  may  partially  cover  the  question  up  with 
sounding  words,  or  try  to  exalt  the  subject  by  dignified  generalities ; 
but  unless  there  was  a  Divine  Personality  incarnated,  there  were 
only  those  abstract  notions  or  ideas  which,  in  some  sense  or  other, 
may  be  said  to  be  incarnated  in  every  human  character.  More 
than  this  is  certainly  affirmed  in  the  mighty  sentences  of  the  Gospel. 
More  than  this  would  seem  to  be  demanded  by  hearts  that  the  Gos 
pel  has  quickened  and  enlarged.  In  the  attempt  to  maintain  that 
middle  position  there  appears  to  be  a  constant  struggle  between  the 
moral  posture  of  the  student  and  the  intellectual ;  between  his  senti 
ments  toward  the  Saviour,  which  are  essentially  adoring,  and  the 
abating  definitions  of  his  formal  statements.  The  right  conclusion  of 
that  struggle  is  a  great  joy. 

In  the  view  under  remark,  it  is  common  to  represent  the  original 
substance  or  groundwork  of  Christ's  being  as  human,  and  the  divin 
ity  as  supervening  upon  that ;  whereas  the  strong  declarations  of  the 
Record  put  the  truth  exactly  the  other  way,  making  the  original 
substance,  or  the  root,  of  his  being  to  be  divine,  and  his  humanity  to 
be  assumed.  So  he  "  took  on  "  the  form  of  man.  He  "  humbled 
himself"  to  be  human.  He  "came  forth,"  "came  down,"  "was 
made  flesh,"  "left  the  glory  he  had  with  the  Father  before  the 
world  was."  This  representation  is  so  continual,  the  statements  are 
so  multiplied^  so  varied,  and  so  natural,  that  the  argument  would  be 
irresistible  even  if  it  were  not  supported  by  the  more  distinct  and 
emphatic  passages,  such  as  "  Before  Abraham  was  I  am,"  passages 
disposed  of  by  the  objector  only  through  exegetical  expedients  which 
illustrate  at  once  the  emergencies  of  a  hard-pressed  theory  and  the 
ingenuity  of  its  defenders.  These  passages  establish  a  personal  pre- 
existence ;  and  establishing  this,  they  establish  a  proper  Divinity ; 
for  Arianism  is  so  untenable  that  it  is  well-nigh  extinct.  By  the 
Church  doctrine  we  are  furnished  with  a  conception  of  the  Incarnation 
far  more  clear,  and  more  religiously  inspiring,  as  well  as  more  Scrip 
tural,  than  by  any  other.  Our  Lord's  humanity  was  a  development ; 


526  NOTE   TO   SERMON   XX. 

his  Divinity  is  perpetual,  "  from  everlasting  to  everlasting/'  As  man, 
and  as  men  speak,  he  "  grew  in  wisdom  and  favor ; "  but  as  God  he 
is  "Jesus  Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever"  and  is  there 
fore  worthy  to  be  worshipped, 

In  these  observations,  we  are  not  making  "  rationality  "  a  test  for 
the  reception  of  this  doctrine,  any  more  than  of  other  religious  and 
revealed  truths.  "VVe  only  exhibit  it  as  an  advantage  of  the  doctrine, 
that  when  faith  has  welcomed  it,  the  intellect  has  its  reward  also  in 
discovering  its  internal  harmonies  and  the  beauty  of  its  relations. 
The  faith  of  the  Church  and  the  ages,  while  confessedly  outreaching 
the  finite  intelligence,  satisfies  our  highest  reverence,  and  feeds  and 
gladdens  the  inmost  soul  of  piety,  while  the  other  has  no  such  offset 
to  its  obscurity,  but  would  leave  us  in  the  double  grief  of  an  unset 
tled  mind  and  unsatisfied  affections.  The  backwardness  shown  some 
times  in  reconciling  this  adoration  of  our  Lord  with  the  terms  of 
dependence  and  limitation  which  are  applied  to  him  in  connection 
with  his  mediatorial  mission  and  earthly  ministry,  arises  largely  from 
an  education  in  opposite  habits.  Yet,  when  we  consider  the  real 
problem  and  conditions  of  that  mediation,  how  can  we  fail  to  behold 
the  simple  necessity  and  complete  naturalness  of  all  these  represen 
tations  ?  What  other  explanation  do  we  need  of  the  Messiah's  earlier 
reserve  in  unfolding  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  which  dwelt  bodily 
in  him,  —  a  reserve  laid  more  and  more  aside,  however,  as  the 
time  of  his  crucifixion  and  glorification  drew  near  ?  That  he  did 
take  this  method  of  a  progressive  disclosure  of  his  truth,  adapting  it 
in  a  degree  to  the  condition  of  his  hearers,  appears  from  many  in 
stances  ;  as  from  his  saying,  " In  the  beginning  I  said  not"  thus  and 
thus  "unto  you;"  "Ye  cannot  bear  them  now;"  "When  he,  the 
Spirit  of  Truth,  is  come,  he  will  guide  you  into  all  truth."  Suppose 
that  while  appearing  in  that  human  form,  among  the  rude  men  of 
his  day,  he  had  been  continually  affirming,  in  the  most  unqualified, 
sudden,  peremptory  manner,  his  divine  supremacy.  How  could  it 
fail  to  confuse  and  bewilder  them,  if  not  to  exasperate  them,  all  un 
prepared  for  it  as  their  ignorance  was,  and  while  his  visible  shape 
appeared  before  them  ?  Even  the  comparatively  few  expressions 
which  he  did  employ,  made  more  distinct  and  frequent  as  his  "  hour  " 
approached,  threatened  to  put  an  end,  and  did  finally  help  to  put  an 
end,  to  his  ministry  in  the  body.  The  truth  could  not  shine  forth  at 
once,  in  its  peerless  glory,  upon  eyes  so  dull.  He  contented  him- 


NOTE  TO   SERMON   XX.  527 

self,  in  his  wise  and  tender  condescension,  with  pronouncing  these 
comprehensive  and  weighty  declarations  of  his  complete  oneness  with 
the  Father,  and  left  the  further  doctrine  of  his  mysterious  nature  to 
unfold  itself  in  the  ripening  wisdom  of  his  Church,  under  the  Holy 
Spirit  which  he  promised.  This  it  would  accomplish  more  simply 
and  powerfully  than  was  possible  while  he  was  associating  as  man 
with  his  untaught  countrymen.  Yet  we  observe  also  that  he  did 
not  refuse  to  be  worshipped  when  worship  was  offered  him.  He  suf 
fered  Thomas  to  call  him  Lord  and  God.  He  declared  himself  the 
Judge  of  all  souls.  He  is  "Emmanuel."  He  "hath  power  to  for 
give  sins."  He  is  "  the  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world." 
"  All  power  "  is  his  "  in  heaven  and  earth."  The  Being  of  whom 
the  Bible  says  this  is  to  be  worshipped  in  his  glorified  state  and 
majesty.  "  All  things  that  the  Father  hath  are  mine,"  he  says.  This 
raises  him  to  the  height  of  adorableness.  Even  "  the  Comforter,"  he 
declares,  " shall  glorify  me"  How  can  we  believe  that  he  meant  to 
refuse  his  disciples  the  dear  delight  of  praising  him  and  entreating 
him  "  in  the  midst  of  the  throne,"  yet  near  and  tender  as  when  he 
wept  for  those  he  loved  on  earth,  and  bade  them  come  unto  him, 
and  told  them  that  "  without  him  they  could  do  nothing,"  and  was 
never  sought  by  any  sincere  petition  in  vain  ?  He  said,  too,  speak 
ing  of  the  sad  impending  hour  of  separation,  when  he  foresaw  that 
the  hearts  and  minds  of  lu's  followers  would  be  torn  with  anguish  and 
doubt,  half  paralyzed  by  fear,  and  alternating  between  fond  remem 
brances  of  his  bodily  appearance  and  new  thoughts  of  the  spiritual 
relation  to  subsist  thenceforth  between  them,  —  "In  that  hour  ye 
shall  (or  will)  ask  me  nothing."  But,  he  adds,  very  considerately, 
to  console  them,  Nevertheless,  your  halting  faith  shall  not  forfeit  the 
blessing.  "  Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  the  Father  in  my  name,  he  will 
give  it  you  ; "  and  again,  "  If  ye  shall  ask  anything  in  my  name,  / 
will  do  it."  The  whole  passage  evidently  relates  to  the  distinction 
between  his  outward  and  his  eternal  presence,  between  the  visible 
and  invisible  intercourse  of  his  followers  with  him.  In  a  remoter 
and  calmer  period  his  worship  would  take  its  place  spontaneously  in 
their  hymns,  ejaculations,  and  litanies.  Meantime,  he  points  them 
to  the  Father  in  whom  they  are  already  believing  with  a  more  set 
tled  and  definite  faith.  Whoever  prays  truly  to  that  Father  prays 
to  God,  and  fulfils  the  spirit  of  prayer  ;  for  God  is  one.  There  is  no 
division  and  no  jealousy  there.  Some  Christians  never  pray  to  any 


528  NOTE   TO    SERMON    XX. 

other  than  the  Father ;  yet  if  they  pray  heartily,  and  "  in  the  name  " 
of  Christ,  that  is,  with  true  faith  in  Christ,  and  do  not  merely  repeat 
his  literal  name  at  the  end  of  their  petitions,  they  surely  must  be 
heard  and  accepted.  Still,  there  comes  to  many  other  disciples  a 
time,  and  not  seldom,  when  their  devotional  aspirations  seek  a  more 
direct  and  personal  communion  with  their  Saviour,  to  whom  they 
owe  their  everlasting  life,  their  peace  and  hope  and  strength.  They 
long  to  utter  the  language  of  this  communion,  in  gratitude  and  sup 
plication  ;  and  theirs,  if  they  do  utter  it,  is  the  richer  worship.  It  is 
not  so  much  enjoined  as  an  obligation  as  it  is  offered  graciously  as  a 
privilege.  It  is  not  to  be  forced,  nor  rejected.  The  believers  who 
share  this  veritable  and  unquestioning  fellowship,  the  fellowship 
between  the  suppliant  and  the  Lord,  who  set  forth  the  holy  fruit 
thereof  in  their  daily  living,  and  "  show  it  accordingly,"  —  these 
have  the  blessing  peculiar  to  those  who,  in  this  respect  as  in  others 
also,  keep  the  Master's  own  word,  and  "  honor  the  Son  even  as  they 
honor  the  Father."  "  Not  unto  us,"  not  unto  them,  "  but  unto  thy 
name,  O  Lord,  give  glory  ! " 


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